Untitled

This untitled mokuhanga by Tomomi Furukawa represents her contribution to the contemporary Japanese water-based woodblock printing tradition. Without a descriptive title to anchor the imagery, the work invites consideration on purely formal terms — a tendency common among contemporary mokuhanga practitioners who often resist the narrative or topographical conventions of historical [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) in favor of abstraction, texture studies, or atmospheric studies. The mokuhanga technique relies on water-based pigments brushed onto carved cherry or shina wood blocks, then transferred to dampened [washi](/glossary/washi) using a [baren](/glossary/baren). This process accommodates effects difficult to achieve in oil-based Western relief printing: [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations applied directly to the block, gentle pigment soak into the paper fibers, and layered transparencies built through successive impressions. Furukawa's selection for the Asia regional exhibition at the Fifth International Mokuhanga Conference (IMC 2024) in Echizen situates this print within an active community of practitioners maintaining mokuhanga as a living medium. Untitled works in this context typically function as exhibition pieces rather than commercial editions, with smaller print runs and an emphasis on the artist's individual material vocabulary.