Key value factors: As self-carved and self-printed works, sosaku-hanga value is tied to the artist's reputation and edition size. Larger formats, earlier editions, and historically significant works command the highest prices.
This woodblock print, designated "8 A" in Okamoto Yoshimi's "First Love" series, introduces a lettered variant that suggests multiple versions of the eighth composition. The "A" suffix implies the existence of a "B" and possibly further variations, indicating that this particular moment or aspect of first love warranted multiple visual investigations. Okamoto's willingness to create sub-variants within an already extended series reveals an artist who approaches emotional subject matter with the systematic rigor of a researcher, testing different formal solutions against the same thematic content. The eighth position in the series places this print in the developing middle section, past the initial encounter but before the mature reflections that later numbers might address. The woodblock medium gives each variant a distinct material identity, as no two impressions from different blocks can be truly identical.
First Love 8 A was created by Okamoto Yoshimi (岡本吉実).
First Love 8 A depicts figures and abstract.
