Love

The slug's reference to 'saru' (monkey) suggests this print depicts Japanese macaques, likely a pair or parent-and-offspring grouping rendered to evoke tender physical contact rather than naturalistic documentation. Kinoshita's contemporary mokuhanga practice typically incorporates the reverse face of the woodblock, allowing knots, grain, and joints to register as part of the printed surface — features that here would plausibly read as fur texture or the rough bark of a forest setting. His habit of dropping or splashing pigment onto the block, rather than restricting color to flat [baren](/glossary/baren)-applied fields, produces irregular, atmospheric passages uncommon in classical [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e). Within his output since his 1980 Nihon Hanga Kyokai debut, mammalian subjects extend the sustained engagement with the natural world that runs through his landscape and botanical work. Titling the print after an emotional state rather than a species or location situates it within the sōsaku-hanga (creative print) lineage, in which the artist controls design, carving, and printing as a single expressive act, departing from documentary [kacho-e](/glossary/kacho-e) convention.