Details

The full moon appears over the houses cradled by the shore as the fisherman walkout from their docked boats into a low tide gleaming with twilight while carrying their full baskets from the day’s hard catch. On the beach, eager fishmongers await the reveal of what the long day’s labor would yield. Although the design hosts a good deal of activity, the composition appears subdued and contemplative. The darker colors in concert with the artist’s masterful use of light soften the seemingly busy scramble of activity. Hiroshi Yoshida’s design provides a deep sense of reverence and poetics to a mundane activity that played out daily, thus granting the viewer the ability to see this daily occurrence with the fresh eyes of a poet or, in Yoshida's case, a Shin Hanga artist.

Connoisseur's Note

This lifetime impression features the artist’s jizuri seal at the left margin. The print also bears a brush and pencil signature. The artist commented on the difficulty of producing larger scale designs, as both carving and printing required great efforts. The original higher sale price reflected the demanding production costs, which kept the yield lower than his regular-sized works. As a result, this design is among the rarest prints produced by the artist.