Composition No2

"Composition No. 2" is a non-representational woodblock print in the abstract idiom Onchi developed within Japanese printmaking. The neutral, numbered title aligns directly with European abstraction's terminology, particularly Kandinsky and the Bauhaus tradition that Onchi studied. In works of this kind, he built up the image from interlocking color planes, organic curves, and contrasting passages of flat ink against rubbed or grain-revealing texture. Hand printing on washi allowed for variation between impressions: the angle and pressure of the baren, the moisture of the paper, and the order of block application all became expressive variables. As founder of the Ichimoku-kai (First Thursday Society) and a central figure in the sosaku-hanga movement, Onchi insisted that the artist control every stage of production — designing, carving, and printing — so the print became a primary, autographic work rather than a reproduction. "Composition No. 2" represents his sustained commitment to that principle and to the development of an indigenous Japanese abstract printmaking language unmoored from narrative subject.