Untitled (1961) by Reika Iwami

This untitled 1961 woodblock print dates from Iwami's early career, a period when she was finding her way toward the abstract seascape imagery that would define her mature work. Created when the artist was thirty-four, the print may still show traces of the figurative training that preceded her commitment to abstraction, or it may represent an early step into the non-representational territory she would fully claim in the following decade. The absence of a title removes the interpretive anchor that works like "Sea in April" or "Ode to Water" provide, leaving the viewer to engage with the image purely on its formal terms. Iwami's 1961 output places her within the vibrant postwar sosaku-hanga scene, when Japanese artists were asserting the print medium's relevance in an international art world dominated by painting.