Untitled (hiyoshi-mamoru)

A twenty-eighth untitled print by Hiyoshi Mamoru. His documentation of the cormorant fishing (ukai) tradition at Gifu — approached from multiple compositional angles across what appears to be a series of related works — demonstrates the depth of his engagement with specific Japanese traditional practices. The ukai subject offered rich visual material: the nighttime river, the flaming torches attracting fish, the trained birds diving and surfacing, the handlers in traditional dress managing their birds from narrow wooden boats.