Geta-baki Kā-chan I-A — Nigeruga Kachi to Omotte mo (Mom in Geta I-A — Even though I think running is winning)

This print introduces the I-A iteration of Tokuhiro's recurring 'Geta-baki Kā-chan' (Mom in Geta) figure, a stout, affectionately caricatured maternal character rendered in the artist's signature kiguchi mokuhan (end-grain wood engraving) technique. The title invokes the Japanese proverb 'nigeruga kachi' (to flee is to win), hedged with 'to omotte mo' (even though I think so) — a wry admission that knowing the wisdom of retreat does not make retreating any easier. The image likely depicts Kā-chan caught between the impulse to flee and the inertia of staying put, her geta clogs and rounded silhouette amplifying the comic tension. Kiguchi mokuhan works on the end-grain face of a hardwood block rather than the side-grain plank used in traditional ukiyo-e mokuhanga, accepting very fine carved line at book-illustration scale. Oil-based ink, standard in this engraving lineage, yields denser blacks than water-based sumi. Issued in an edition of 10, this print received the Keisei Kobayashi Jurors' Prize at the 2019 Awagami International Mini Print Exhibition.