About This Print

Source: Revisiting Modern Japanese Prints: Selected Works from the Richard F. Grott Family Collection, Helen M. Nagata, Helen Merritt, Northern Illinois University Art Museum, 2007, p. 24, 40.

"Kitaoka’s Fishing Village in the Afternoon is a model of layeredcolor, technique, and meaning.  Kitaoka presents his village street inthe strong light of the high-noon hour.  The wash of the direct light,enhanced with a sheen of luminescent mica, is beautifully accented withsplashes of orange and blue in the receding background and the cuddledmass of a yellow dog in the lower right corner.  Using Westernperspective methods and Eastern printing expertise, the printbeautifully captures an accurately observed moment.  There is atimelessness to the image; the space depicted is a working man’svillage, a seaside community with worn streets and lived-in houses. Portraying an identifiable setting, moment, and mood, all executed withcomplete artistic control and mastery, Kitaoka’s print is the paradigmof woodblock printing at its best and is a visually stunning exercisein expressive realism."

"Inaddition to imparting a sense of calm, prints in Grott’s collectionalso offer a view of Japanese life not often seen.  One such example isa 1966 print by Kitaoka Fumio (1918–2007) entitled Fishing Village in the Afternoon.  It shows a deserted street occupied only by one seatedperson and a yellow dog sleeping in the sun.  Grott enjoys the subtlecolors used in the print, but grows serious when he describes thesense.  'It is not a wealthy area,' he observes.  'There is an unusualmetal tower and a ramshackle roof that looks like it’s about to falldown.  Life’s not so great for people who have to do this type of work.'

Source: Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: The Early Years, Helen Merritt, University of Hawaii Press, 1990, p. 254.
"Itwas not until he began to sell prints to members of the Americanoccupation forces that he thought of himself as a professional hangaartist.  Fishing Village in Afternoon, 1966, is arepresentative work.  Printed in soft grays and warm yellow andenriched with mica, this print captures the stillness and glare of theseaside in the long shadows of the afternoon."

Print Details

IHL Catalog	#194
Title	Fishing Village in the Afternoon (Gyoson no gogo 漁村の午后)
Series	n/a
Artist	Kitaoka Fumio (1918-2007)
Signature	pencil signed by artist in English below the image
Seal	unsealed
Publication Date	1967
Edition	126/210
Publisher	self-published
Impression	excellent
Colors	excellent
Condition	good- overall light toning and mat line; wrinkling of print primarily in margins; tape remnants on verso; several spots of foxing in margins and verso
Genre	sosaku hanga (creative print)
Miscellaneous	artist proof dated 1966, one year before edition publication in 1967
Format
H x W Paper	18 5/8 x 24 1/2 in. (47.5 x 52.2 cm)
H x W Image	16 x 21 1/2 in.  (40.6 x 54.6 cm)
Collections This Print	Northern Illinois University Art Museum (NIU 2005.26, Gift of Richard F. Grott Family)
Reference Literature	Revisiting Modern Japanese Prints: Selected Works from the Richard F. Grott Family Collection, Helen M. Nagata, Helen Merritt, Northern Illinois University Art Museum, 2007, catalog no. 8, p. 44; Modern JapaneseWoodblock Prints - The Early Years, Helen Merritt, University of Hawaii Press, 1998, p. 255