Hide and Seek (Kakurenbo)

Created in 1954, this color woodblock print takes the children's game of hide-and-seek, identified by its Japanese name kakurenbo, as a vehicle for exploring themes of concealment, discovery, and the anxious pleasure of being hidden. Shinagawa translates the game into semi-abstract visual language, likely depicting fragmented figures partially obscured by architectural or natural elements. Kakurenbo carries resonance beyond childhood play in Japanese culture, appearing in ghost stories and supernatural tales where the game becomes a conduit for encounters with the spirit world. Shinagawa's sosaku-hanga treatment allows him to explore the game's dual nature, playful and unsettling, through expressive color and the bold, carved-line aesthetic that gives woodblock prints their distinctive visual tension between planned structure and emotional spontaneity.