Japanese Woodblock Print by Hiroto Norikane Born 1949: Unframed; Signed in Pencil on Lower Margin with Artist's Stamped Seal; 2/50

Thatched roofs crowd the valley floor, and a few birds lift off above the tallest pines.

This woodblock print, Village II, is by Hiroto Norikane, born 1949, from Japan, made around 2023 as an etching on laid paper. Unframed, it is signed in pencil on the lower margin with the artist's stamped seal and numbered 2/50. Fine-line printmaking builds tone from hatching alone. Farmhouses with heavy thatched roofs sit in a row before a dark band of cedars, soft hills behind. Tall grasses sweep across the foreground, and two slender trees rise at right. The image is 19.75 inches wide and 10.25 high.

A village with no news, which is entirely the point.