Refuge On

The fragmentary title likely originates from a longer caption identifying a specific refuge site, plausibly one of the open grounds where survivors of the 1923 earthquake gathered in the days after the fires: Ueno Park, the Imperial Palace plaza, the Aoyama parade ground, or Hibiya. Documentary prints of these gatherings tend to compose horizontally, with rows of seated and reclining figures, bundles of rescued possessions, and umbrellas or improvised awnings extending into the middle distance. Sengai's newspaper background suited him to the orderly populating of such scenes, where individual posture carries narrative weight without recourse to dramatic gesture. Printed in restrained palettes of grey, brown, and faded blue on [washi](/glossary/washi), with [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations supplying overcast sky or distant smoke, the design belongs to the documentary register Sengai shared with contemporaries such as Unpo Takashima, who also produced earthquake-related prints during the Taisho period.