As Time Goes By

As Time Goes By (時の過ぎゆくままに) is the small-format etching for which Takahara received the Yoshinogawa City Mayoral Prize at the 2021 Awagami International Miniprint Exhibition. The Japanese title — a phrase that translates literally as 'as time passes by' — points to a contemplative subject concerned with temporal passage rather than a fixed scene or location. The work is produced by oil-based intaglio: acid bites an incised metal plate, oil ink is forced into the recessed lines, and the image is transferred to washi under press. Printing intaglio onto Japanese washi rather than the heavier Western papers conventional to etching produces a softer line edge and visible fibre texture, since the long kozo or gampi fibres of washi absorb and disperse ink differently from cotton-rag stock. The miniprint format imposed by A.I.M.P.E. — typically under fifteen centimetres per side — concentrates the etched mark and demands compositional economy. Within Takahara's practice in oil-based intaglio, this print represents the strand of his work selected for international juried recognition.