Wind

The third sheet in Ono's Wind sequence, completing a small group exploring atmosphere as subject. Where the prewar Ono produced high-contrast black-and-white scenes of Tokyo's industrial landscape and urban workers, this postwar weather subject shows the artist working in a more abstracted, contemplative register — closer to the lyric mode his mentor Koshiro Onchi pursued in the Ichimoku-kai circle. Wind in mokuhanga is often suggested through the carving rhythm of background fields, through the diagonal of any tree, grass, or cloud element, and through bokashi gradation that thins ink toward one edge of the block. Ono's practice involved cutting his own blocks on the side grain and pulling impressions on washi by hand with a baren, so the printed surface preserves both the resistance of the wood and the pressure of the printer. The three Wind prints together register his preference for serial investigation of a single theme.