Untitled (soseki-komori)

This untitled print by Komori Soseki represents the artist's ongoing exploration of natural subjects through the woodblock medium. Soseki belonged to a generation of shin-hanga artists who revitalized the ukiyo-e tradition in the early twentieth century by applying its collaborative workshop methods to new designs informed by Western naturalism and a deeply rooted Japanese feeling for landscape and wildlife. His prints were produced in limited editions, carved into cherry wood blocks and printed by hand on absorbent hosho paper. The mineral and vegetable pigments used in shin-hanga printing gave the colors a luminous, slightly translucent quality distinct from the flat opacity of industrial inks.