Funa — 鮒

Titled 鮒 (funa), this print depicts the crucian carp (Carassius species), one of Japan's most familiar freshwater fish and a subject with deep roots in Japanese visual and culinary culture. The funa appears in ink painting, ceramics, and woodblock prints across centuries, prized for its rounded body profile and golden coloring in domestic varieties. Ohno Bakufu's treatment, in keeping with his Dai Nihon Gyorui Gashu methodology, would present the fish in precise lateral profile with scales individually registered and fin structure anatomically accurate. The coloring of the wild funa — silvery-green dorsal surface graduating to pale ventral — would be achieved through careful bokashi and layered pigment application. A minimal background, perhaps a suggestion of aquatic plants or a plain neutral ground, ensures full attention remains on the fish's form. This print exemplifies Ohno's ambition to treat Japanese fish as worthy of the same rigorous pictorial attention as any fine art subject.