Wonsan, Korea

This oban woodblock print depicts a scene in Wonsan (also known as Genzan during the Japanese colonial period), a port city on the eastern coast of Korea. Wonsan's harbor, one of the finest natural harbors in Korea, and its surrounding mountains provided Keith with subject matter that combined maritime activity with dramatic topography. Keith visited Korea during the Japanese occupation, and her prints from this period record Korean life under colonial rule with an outsider's eye that captured cultural details a Japanese artist of the period might have overlooked or an occupied Korean artist might not have been free to publish. The print contributes to a small but valuable body of work documenting early twentieth-century Korea through the woodblock medium, preserving scenes of a culture under intense pressure from colonial modernization.