Picture of an eggplant

An eggplant (nasu) is a recurring motif in Japanese still-life prints, valued for its compact form, deep purple-black skin, and auspicious associations: the proverb hatsuyume — Fuji, taka, nasubi — names the eggplant as the third lucky image to dream of in the New Year. A single-vegetable composition gives the printmaker a controlled subject through which to demonstrate registration, color layering, and surface effects. Achieving the saturated near-black of eggplant skin in mokuhanga generally requires multiple overprintings of related dark pigments, often with a final [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) pass to suggest the fruit's curved sheen, while the calyx is articulated in a contrasting green. The format usually allows a generous margin of unprinted [washi](/glossary/washi) to frame the subject, an approach borrowed from haiga and Rinpa-school still-life painting. Within Taki Shusui's known output, which is dominated by landscape, a nature study of this kind sits closer to the [kacho-e](/glossary/kacho-e) (bird-and-flower) tradition extended to vegetable subjects.