Untitled (hiyoshi-mamoru)

A nineteenth untitled work by Hiyoshi Mamoru. The woodblock medium's capacity for precise rendering of social scenes — the exact position of figures, the specific design of tools and garments, the characteristic arrangement of a market or a farmyard — suited Hiyoshi Mamoru's documentary ambitions. Each print is a small act of preservation, fixing a moment of social life that was already passing in the rapidly modernizing Japan of the Showa period.