by Imoto Tekiho
Key value factors: As self-carved and self-printed works, sosaku-hanga value is tied to the artist's reputation and edition size. Larger formats, earlier editions, and historically significant works command the highest prices.
The third in a [sumi](/glossary/sumi)-e series, this woodblock print represents Tekiho's ongoing investigation of how the monochrome ink painting tradition can be expressed through the different mechanics of woodblock printing. Sumi-e at its purest uses only sumi ink in varying concentrations, from the darkest black to the palest wash, creating images that are as much about the quality of each brushstroke as about the subject depicted. Tekiho's woodblock translation preserves the tonal vocabulary while necessarily altering the gestural quality, replacing the brush's direct expressiveness with the carved block's precise repeatability. This trade-off between spontaneity and precision gives the series its intellectual interest: each print is a meditation on what happens when one art form is filtered through the constraints and possibilities of another.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Untitled, sumi-e 3 was created by Imoto Tekiho (井元荻浦).
Untitled, sumi-e 3 depicts landscapes and abstract.
