Peace 2

"Peace 2" identifies this print as part of a numbered sequence, suggesting Norikane returned to a unifying theme across multiple works. As mokuhanga, the print would be produced by carving separate cherry or shina wood blocks for each color and printing onto [washi](/glossary/washi) using water-based pigments worked with a [baren](/glossary/baren) — the process that distinguishes Japanese woodblock from Western intaglio. Without firsthand examination, the iconography of the "Peace" series cannot be specified, but the title points toward contemplative or symbolic content rather than landscape or figural representation. Numbered series titles became common among twentieth-century Japanese printmakers working within the sōsaku-hanga tradition, where artists carved and printed their own blocks rather than relying on publisher-led production. The presence of this print in online hanga databases alongside better-documented contemporaries places it within a generation of postwar printmakers, though Norikane's specific affiliations and exhibition history remain undocumented in English-language sources.