Details

In Into the Woods, Kasamatsu explores the visual and psychological depth of a forested landscape through a modernist lens. A winding puddle, filled with the crisp reflection of sky and tangled branches, cuts sharply through a field of dappled leaf-patterned earth. Trees stand tall in vertical rhythm, their trunks rendered in deep browns and blacks, while golden light filters down in scattered forms—patches of illumination that dance across the forest floor in amber and olive tones.

The pool at the center functions as a compositional and conceptual anchor. Reflected within its irregular shape is not merely the canopy above, but a world inverted—a subtle invitation to move inward, to shift one’s gaze from surface to interior. The entire print pulses with tension between abstraction and representation, stillness and quiet motion.

Connoisseur's Note

While Shirō Kasamatsu is widely celebrated for his Shin-Hanga works published by Watanabe Shōzaburō—delicate, collaborative images of temples, landscapes, and seasonal beauty—his later sōsaku hanga period marks a significant evolution in both philosophy and form. Beginning in the mid-1950s, Kasamatsu fully embraced the Sosaku Hanga (creative print) approach, in which the artist designs, carves, and prints each work entirely by hand.

Into the Woods, dated 1955, stands among the earliest and most visually daring examples from this independent phase. It departs from overt scenic description in favor of abstraction, pattern, and personal introspection. The print’s emphasis on surface texture, reflected space, and the quiet geometry of nature signals a mature artistic voice—one deeply in tune with his subject, and unafraid to reinterpret it.

Printed in a small, self-published edition and signed in pencil with both Kasamatsu’s seal and brushed signature, this work exemplifies the tactile intimacy and meditative spirit that define the best of Sosaku Hanga. It reveals a different Kasamatsu: still reverent of nature, but more internal, more modern—stepping not only into the woods, but into the quiet space of self-reflection.