The Key of the Wind (Anemoscope)

The parenthetical "Anemoscope" — a historical instrument for indicating wind direction — provides the print's structural metaphor. The image likely centers on a single elongated form, perhaps a seed, vane, or skeletal botanical specimen, treated as an instrument that registers invisible currents. Takeda's etched line in her later work tends toward the attenuated and almost calligraphic, while aquatint passes produce deep, velvety blacks against which the principal subject reads as a luminous outline. Chine-collé contributes the slight tonal warmth and surface sheen that distinguishes her impressions from conventional intaglio printing. Together with Wind's Port of Call (2019), this print belongs to a small group exploring wind as both subject and atmospheric condition — a shift from her earlier focus on discrete plant and insect specimens toward a more allegorical mode. The bilingual Japanese–Greek title (風／アネモス) signals the wider literary register of her late practice.