Sea in the morning

A seascape exploiting the time of day when low sun produces flat horizontal banding across water and sky, a pictorial structure that suits the woodblock medium's preference for stacked planes of color. Morning sea prints of this kind typically pair a graduated [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) sky — produced by working ink across a damp block with a wide brush before pulling the impression — with a more solidly inked sea, the horizon line carved as a sharp register between the two. Kitaoka often introduces a single low element such as a distant boat, a strip of headland, or a rock to anchor the otherwise unbroken horizontal divisions. The print belongs to his extensive seascape output from the 1960s through 1990s, in which the Japanese coast functions as a recurring subject for studies in atmosphere, restricted palette, and the tonal possibilities of mokuhanga.