137 Serigraph H

The title pairs a catalogue or inventory number (137) with a reference to serigraphy, an unusual designation for a work classified as mokuhanga. The combination suggests either a numbered piece within a sustained graphic series that referenced silkscreen visual language, or a print in which Sawada explored the boundary between carved-block and stencil-based methods. Twentieth-century Japanese printmakers working in the sosaku-hanga tradition frequently experimented across techniques, and mokuhanga executed in flat planes of color can visually approach the appearance of screen printing while retaining the baren-pulled surface and the tonal subtleties of pigment absorbed into washi. The letter suffix H implies that the print belongs to a lettered subset within a broader sequence, consistent with the systematic numbering practices common among postwar Japanese printmakers who issued small editions through hangaten (print exhibitions). Without documented commentary from the artist or contemporaneous catalogues, the imagery and full context of the series remain undetermined.