In the hold

"In the hold" depicts the cargo deck of a repatriation vessel, where Japanese civilians returning from Manchuria, Korea, and other occupied territories were berthed for the voyage back to the home islands. Kitaoka was himself repatriated from occupied Manchuria in 1946 after his wartime assignment with the Northeast Asia Culture Development Society, and the scene is drawn from direct experience rather than reportage. Within his oeuvre, this print sits alongside the DDT disembarkation compositions as part of a small documentary group recording the displacement of the immediate postwar period. The hold setting permits a compressed, low-ceilinged composition with figures grouped in close quarters — a subject that lends itself to the strong silhouetting and dense black areas of the [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) key block. Following the jiga, jikoku, jizuri principles of the movement, Kitaoka drew, carved, and printed the work himself, treating mokuhanga as a vehicle for personal historical witness in the manner of his teacher Hiratsuka Un'ichi rather than as a commercial publishing-house product.