Arise 1990

Arise, dated 1990, suggests a composition organized around the motion of rising — emergence, ascent, or the upward shift of a form against a settled ground. The verb-as-title is consistent with the practice of postwar sosaku-hanga and post-sosaku printmakers who favored single-word English titles to signal a thematic gesture rather than a topographic subject. In mokuhanga, the impression of vertical motion can be carried through directional carving, columnar composition, or graduated bokashi that lifts color from a darker base toward a lighter upper register. The 1990 date places Arise at the threshold between the Showa and Heisei eras, a period in which Japanese print exhibitions (hangaten) continued to support the production of small-edition abstract and semi-abstract work on washi. Within Sawada's documented output, Arise sits alongside Mirror II (1989) and Dawn II (1989), suggesting a sustained late-1980s phase of titled, dated prints exploring elemental or directional themes.