Mist Fantasy 158

Mist Fantasy 158 makes atmospheric obscuration its central subject, a condition rendered in mokuhanga through bokashi — the controlled gradation of ink across a moistened block surface, applied with a baren to produce soft chromatic transitions on washi. The mist motif has deep roots in Japanese printmaking, with earlier ukiyo-e landscape masters using both bokashi and kasumi (cloud-form) compositional devices to suggest distance and weather; Shimura's contribution lies in his abstraction of the device into a near-pictorial subject in itself. Forms within the print would be partially dissolved, suggesting trees or terrain emerging from and receding into a tonal ground rather than fully resolving. The 'Fantasy' descriptor indicates the work is not tied to a specific topographic site, distinguishing it from the meisho-e place-views tradition and aligning it with the more imaginative, personally invented landscapes of postwar sosaku-hanga. Shimura's parallel serigraph work uses similar atmospheric layering, indicating a consistent technical concern with surface and depth that crosses his medium choices.