Fetty 1997

Dated to 1997 in its title, Fetty falls within Shinoda's late mature period, when she was in her eighties and producing work characterized by economy and structural clarity. The print likely presents a small constellation of marks — a few decisive black strokes, perhaps with vermilion or metallic accent — held in suspension across a sheet of washi. Shinoda's working method translated calligraphic gesture into edition prints through close collaboration with skilled craftsmen, and as mokuhanga the image would carry the soft absorption of pigment characteristic of baren-pulled impressions. The naming convention, applying a dated short title, recurs throughout her late catalogue and emphasizes the work as a record of a particular moment of decision rather than a depictive subject. Fetty 1997 sits within the broader trajectory of postwar Japanese abstraction, where artists trained in classical disciplines reimagined ink as the basis for autonomous formal language.