Scorpion Fish- Okoze — オコゼ

A second version of the okoze (オコゼ) subject from the Dai Nihon Gyorui Gashu series, this print revisits the devil stinger with potential compositional or coloristic variation from its paired print. The scorpionfish's dense visual complexity — spiny dorsal rays, lumpy skin texture, cryptic coloration — would provide Ohno Bakufu ample reason to return to the subject, as no single composition could fully document the species' unusual anatomy. This variant may present the fish from a different angle, emphasize the venomous dorsal spines from a three-quarter perspective, or render the okoze in a marine context suggesting the rocky seafloor environment in which it lives. The mottled coloration of the scorpionfish, ranging from reddish-brown through ochre to near-black, required complex multiple-block printing to achieve without the tones reading as muddy. The series was published across several years, and variant prints may reflect refinements in Ohno's approach to particularly challenging subjects as his collaboration with craftsmen deepened over the course of the project.