Kasumi

Kasumi — the Japanese word for spring haze or mist — guides this reduction woodcut toward atmospheric abstraction. In reduction printing, successive colors are printed from a single block, with material removed between each pass; this irreversible process means no two states of the block can coexist, and the final image is built up through layered overprinting. For a subject like kasumi, the technique is well-suited: each reduction pass can deposit washes of color that accumulate into softly differentiated tonal zones evoking diffused light and obscured forms. Mounting on Western paper, rather than washi alone, suggests a deliberate choice about surface stability and presentation weight. The work engages a traditional Japanese aesthetic concept — the beauty of the partially concealed and the indistinct — through a technically demanding printmaking process.