Green Buddha

This woodblock print reimagines a Buddha figure in an unexpected palette, replacing the traditional gold or stone gray with green. Shinagawa's color choice signals a departure from devotional representation: this is not a Buddha meant to inspire worship but one filtered through the artist's personal interpretive vision. The green may reference the patina of aged bronze, the moss that covers outdoor stone Buddhas in Japanese temple gardens, or simply an expressive decision to push the figure into unfamiliar chromatic territory. Sosaku-hanga artists frequently engaged with religious subjects as formal and cultural material rather than as objects of veneration. Shinagawa likely renders the Buddha with the bold line work and simplified volumes that characterize his approach to the human form, treating the sacred figure with the same expressive freedom he applies to secular subjects.