Mizufune (1912-1981) was born in Kure, Hiroshima prefecture in 1912. He studied printmaking with Hiratsuka Unichi and pioneered a new technique in which he first printed the paper with a large uncut block inked with sumi ink. This gave him a deeply inked black sheet, upon which he printed large areas of vibrant color and bright white. To create the thick texture of the colored areas, he usually made six or seven impressions from each color block. Sold