Purple Forest 110

Purple Forest 110 depicts a wooded landscape resolved in a restricted purple chromatic range, with the high serial number indicating its place in an ongoing run of forest variations Shimura has explored across decades. Mokuhanga permits the layered translucent passages of color suited to such a study, since each block impression on washi can introduce a slightly differing pigment density to build atmospheric depth between trunks and canopy. The forest motif sits within a broader tradition of Japanese woodland imagery that runs from Hiroshige's late landscapes through the shin-hanga generation, though Shimura's reduction to a near-monochromatic field aligns him with the postwar sosaku-hanga emphasis on personal expression over topographic description. Trees appear stylized rather than botanically specific, the composition relying on rhythmic vertical intervals and bokashi gradation to suggest distance receding into mist. The work parallels Shimura's parallel serigraph practice, where similarly layered translucent inks generate subdued forest atmospheres from his Cambridge studio.