One sunset

One Sunset reduces the descent of the sun across a horizon line to a stripped, planar composition typical of postwar sosaku-hanga. Ono works the sky in graduated bokashi, the brushed pigment thinning toward the upper register while the saturated disc of the sun anchors the central axis. The horizon itself is carved as a single hard edge against which the lower zone of land or water reads as a quieter tonal block. The print follows the self-carved, self-printed practice Ono absorbed from the Onchi circle and the Ichimoku-kai - one hand responsible for drawing, carving the keyblock and color blocks, and pulling each impression on washi with the baren. Sunsets and dusk subjects recur through his later landscape production, where the stark high-contrast urban prints of the 1930s gave way to a more contemplative register while retaining the graphic clarity of carved-block thinking.