The twelfth work in the Yatsuhashi series continues Nakazawa's dialogue with the classical bridge-and-iris motif through copperplate etching and metal leaf. By the twelfth variation, the literal components of the yatsuhashi scene — water, bridge, iris, embankment — have been abstracted to the degree that the image functions more as visual memory than representation. Calligraphic elements may retain traces of the classical poem associated with the Tales of Ise episode, in which the acrostic poem on kakitsubata (iris) is embedded in the narrative, though legibility is absorbed into the overall graphic field. Metal leaf, suggesting both the gold ground of Heian-period painting and the reflective surface of still water, anchors the composition in material terms while sustaining the series' characteristic oscillation between historical reference and formal abstraction.
Yatsuhashi XII was created by Shinichi Nakazawa (中澤慎一).
Yatsuhashi XII uses Etching, on etching with metal leaf.
Yatsuhashi XII depicts calligraphy and abstract.
