Untitled (tekiho-imoto)

A third untitled print in Imoto Tekiho's catalog, this work belongs to a group of compositions whose subjects must be apprehended through looking rather than reading. Tekiho's practice of working between sumi-e aesthetics and woodblock technique gives even his untitled works a recognizable identity: the tonal range of ink painting achieved through the precise registration of carved blocks, and the natural subjects of the East Asian landscape tradition rendered with a printmaker's attention to compositional structure. The untitled designation, while a limitation for researchers and catalogers, creates an openness of interpretation that titled works sometimes foreclose. The viewer approaches the image without expectations and discovers its subject fresh, as though encountering the depicted scene directly rather than through the mediation of language.