Bloei Possibly 1905

This is ‘Bloei’, a print made by Furuya Kōrin, sometime between the late 19th and early 20th century using a woodblock. I just love the way the two large blossoms dominate the composition, their forms rendered in subtly contrasting shades of gray against a muted background. The materiality of the print feels central to its power. You can almost feel the texture of the paper and imagine the careful carving of the woodblock. The blossoms themselves seem to emerge from the surface, their delicate petals suggested through the interplay of light and shadow. Look closely, and you can see how the ink bleeds slightly at the edges, giving the forms a soft, almost dreamlike quality. There's a real kinship here with the work of someone like Edvard Munch, who also explored themes of nature, emotion, and the inner life through a similarly expressive handling of materials. What unites them, I think, is a willingness to embrace ambiguity and to trust in the power of art to evoke feelings and ideas that words alone cannot express.