SAILING BOATS

This 1915 oban woodblock print focuses on sailing boats, likely observed along Japan's coast or in one of its many harbors. The subject gave Fritz Capelari an opportunity to study the specific construction of Japanese watercraft, which differed significantly from European sailing vessels in their hull design, rigging, and sail shape. Japanese coastal boats often used a single large sail of cotton or straw matting, rectangular or trapezoidal in form, quite unlike the triangular jibs and gaff-rigged sails familiar from European maritime painting. Capelari's training in Vienna would have included the Western tradition of marine art, and his depiction of Japanese boats represents a meeting of two nautical cultures on paper. The oban format and the flat, saturated colors of the woodblock medium give the sails and water a graphic boldness that reads as both decorative and documentary.