Fishermen

This 1912 color woodcut portrays fishermen at work, connecting Lum to a subject that stretches back centuries in Japanese visual culture. Her treatment of the theme filters it through a Western compositional awareness while honoring the printmaking techniques she learned in Tokyo. The figures of the fishermen are rendered with economy — a few decisive carved lines defining posture and effort — while the water around them receives more nuanced treatment through graduated color washes. Lum carved her own cherry-wood blocks, a labor-intensive process that gave her intimate knowledge of how each cut would translate into printed line. Fishermen as a subject allowed her to explore the human figure in motion against an aquatic environment, balancing the static and dynamic elements within a single image.