Sample woodblock print (driftwood block series)

This print is a representative example from Tanaka's ongoing investigation into mokuhanga made from gathered and found wood rather than the cherry (yamazakura) or katsura traditionally favored by Edo-period printers. Rather than presenting a pictorial subject in the manner of meisho-e or kacho-e, the impression functions as an index of the driftwood block itself: the grain, knots, splits, and weathering of the source timber are transferred to washi as the primary image, with hand-burnishing by baren registering the irregular topography of a non-planed surface. Inking is typically restrained — single tones or sparse bokashi — to keep the wood's biography legible rather than overprinting it. Within Tanaka's wider practice, which extends printmaking into installation and socially engaged collaboration around forests, harvested trees, and coastal debris, the driftwood block series operates as a documentary gesture: the matrix is itself a fragment of a tree's ecological history, and each pull is a record of that specific piece of wood before it returns to decomposition or is incorporated into a larger installation.