Owls

A nocturnal study treating the kacho-e bird subject through the formal vocabulary of sosaku-hanga rather than the decorative manner of Edo-period precedent. Ono approaches the owl with the high-contrast tonal language he developed across decades of black-and-white work: bold relief carving, strongly defined silhouettes, and minimal intermediate modulation. The mokuhanga medium suits such subjects because the carved block holds plumage as crisp grain or chisel mark, and the absence of mid-tones forces graphic resolution onto every passage. The composition likely centers the bird or birds against a dark or undefined ground, asserting the creatures as flat shapes rather than illusionistic forms. The owl stands apart from the spring birds and seasonal flowers of traditional kacho-e — a creature of night and stillness aligned with the sosaku-hanga generation's preference for psychological, often austere imagery. Connects to Ono's wider interest in subjects observed in stillness and low light: industrial workers, harbor edges, evening roads, and now the watchful nocturnal bird, all treated with the same tonal severity that ran through his work from the 1930s onward.