Work

"Work" (sakuhin) was a title Onchi used repeatedly for abstract or near-abstract compositions, often numbered as a continuing series. Such prints abandon recognizable subject matter in favor of arrangements of colored shapes, textures, and printed wood grain. Onchi was Japan's first sustained practitioner of fully abstract mokuhanga, drawing on his familiarity with Kandinsky and German Expressionism while exploiting effects available only to the medium - visible woodgrain, baren rubbing marks, embossing from uncut blanks, and overprinted bokashi. The compositions argue for the woodblock as an autonomous fine-art medium rather than a reproductive craft, a position central to the sosaku-hanga movement Onchi helped found alongside Yamamoto Kanae and Ishii Hakutei. Each impression is treated as a unique pull rather than a uniform edition, with the irregularities of hand-printing accepted as part of the work's meaning.