Key value factors: For living or recently deceased artists, limited edition size and gallery representation drive value. Signed and numbered prints from smaller editions are most desirable.
"Dice (Utamaro)" from 1970 is a color intaglio print that stages a dialogue between Ouchi Makoto and the legendary [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) master Kitagawa Utamaro. By pairing the randomness of dice with a reference to one of Japan's most celebrated print artists, Ouchi creates a work that meditates on chance, tradition, and artistic inheritance. The intaglio process involves incising an image into a metal plate and filling the grooves with ink, producing rich tonal variations distinct from relief printing. Ouchi's decision to invoke Utamaro within this Western printmaking technique highlights the cross-cultural exchange that defined postwar Japanese art, where artists freely combined native references with European methods to forge something genuinely new.
Woodblock print
c. 1832/38
Color woodblock print; oban
Yuki no Miyajima
1929
Color woodblock print; oban
1932
Woodblock print
Dice (Utamaro) was created by Ouchi Makoto (大内マコト) in 1970.
Dice (Utamaro) uses Etching, on color intaglio.
Dice (Utamaro) depicts snow scenes.
