Nude

This second Nude indicates Ono's return to the figure as a subject worth multiple investigations rather than a single statement, a serial habit consistent with [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga)'s view of the print as a medium for sustained personal study. The composition would likely differ from the first Nude in pose, framing, or tonal balance, allowing the artist to test different solutions to the same problem of translating a three-dimensional body into the flat carved block. Sosaku-hanga nudes of this generation typically favor strong contour combined with broad tonal masses rather than the all-over patterning of [bijin-ga](/glossary/bijin-ga), and Ono's graphic vocabulary — heavy black, deliberate knife mark, restrained palette — fits this approach. Producing the print himself from cutting the block to pulling the impression on [washi](/glossary/washi), Ono follows the jihanga principle that defined his movement and that he documented extensively in his historical writing on Japanese creative printmaking. The pairing of two Nudes within his output reflects the seriousness with which he treated the figure alongside his better-known industrial and travel subjects.