Mystery No. 1

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.