Mystery No. 1
- Date:
- 1961
- Medium:
- Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
- Dimensions:
- 41.1 × 53.2 cm
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
$500–$5,000. Common prints: $500–$1,500. Key value factors: Yoshida Masaji's abstract prints are collected by those interested in post-war Japanese modernism.
Produced in 1961 using ink and color on paper, this first entry in a "Mystery" series signals Masaji's willingness to title his work with openly enigmatic language. Where titles like "Space" and "Earth" name concrete concepts, "Mystery" points toward the unknowable, inviting the viewer to sit with ambiguity rather than seek resolution. The abstract woodblock composition likely features obscured or partially hidden forms, shapes that emerge from darkness or recede into it, creating a visual field where certainty is withheld. The 1961 date places the print at the beginning of the decade in which Masaji's work became increasingly refined and reductive, moving toward greater economy of means. Mystery, for Masaji, was not theatrical obscurity but a condition of genuine not-knowing expressed through restrained visual means.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Mystery No. 1 was created by Yoshida Masaji (吉田政次) in 1961.
Mystery No. 1 depicts abstract.
Mystery No. 1 measures 41.1 × 53.2 cm.
![[abstract composition with diagonal woodgrain] by Gen Yamaguchi](https://1.api.artsmia.org/800/135949.jpg)