Summer Breeze

This color woodblock print from an edition of 100 evokes the warm winds of summer, printed in a palette that likely emphasizes greens, blues, and the golden tones of sunlit foliage. The title "Summer Breeze" implies movement, the stirring of leaves and grasses by a wind that provides relief from the heat that builds through June and July in the Kyoto basin. Tatsuo Kawashima may depict a landscape where the breeze's presence is visible in the lean of tall grasses, the flutter of leaves, or the ripple of water on a pond or stream. Edition number 73 of 100 places this impression in the later portion of the print run. The 20th-century dating aligns with Kawashima's sustained engagement with seasonal subjects, each print isolating a specific sensory quality, in this case the feel of moving air, and translating it into visual form.