Kanda River

A monochrome woodblock print in black ink on cream paper shows a narrow urban river receding into the distance, flanked by a low wooden building with a row of windows on the left and an embankment wall on the right; three small flat-bottomed boats sit on the water, one moored close in the foreground. A steel truss bridge crosses the river in the middle distance, beyond which rooftops, a spire, and what appears to be a factory chimney rise against a sky rendered in radiating carved lines. The composition is dense with fine parallel and cross-hatched linework throughout, giving the scene a sober, industrial mood; the print is signed "F. Kitaoka" in pencil below the image, with the artist's initials "F.K." carved into the block at lower right. *Kanda River*, by Fumio Kitaoka, mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock print).