The Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden - Greenhouse 1949

Koshiro Onchi made this color woodcut of the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden Greenhouse, and you can just feel the give and take, right? The way color is offset from line. The red, greens and blues of the plants create a layered effect, kinda wobbly and humid, like the place itself. It's as if Onchi worked the block, printed it, then reworked the block, so that each layer builds on the last with slight misalignments, each one kind of nudging the image into being. He's almost fighting against perfect duplication to find something new. I imagine Onchi thinking about how to capture the energy of the place. Did he start with the structure of the greenhouse, or the plants themselves? It's a dance between observation and invention. For me, this print speaks to the magic that happens when artists embrace process, allowing accidents and adjustments to guide their hand. We’re all just trying to make something new out of something old.