Safety on the Seas
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Edo-Tokyo Museum
- Image courtesy of
- Edo-Tokyo Museum
Description
This print addresses the theme of maritime safety, likely through auspicious imagery invoking protection for sailors and vessels at sea. Such subjects drew on a deep visual vocabulary in Japanese art, including depictions of Ryûjin (the dragon king of the sea), the deity Kompira (patron of sailors, enshrined at Kotohira in Shikoku), or storm narratives resolved through divine intervention. The late Edo and Meiji periods saw significant Japanese maritime activity, and votive imagery related to sea safety had broad commercial appeal among merchant and fishing communities. Kyosai's treatment would likely balance compositional drama — cresting waves rendered in the tradition of marine painting — with devotional or auspicious symbolism. His ability to move between the serious and the playful, and his command of both monumental figural subjects and dynamic natural forces, made him well suited to a composition where protective supernatural agency meets the physical force of the ocean.
More Prints by Kawanabe Kyosai
from the series One Hundred Pictures by Kyôsai (Kyôsai hyakuzu)
Woodblock print
Old Picture of the Rashômon Gate (Rashômon no ko zu), from the series Scenes of Famous Places along the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô meisho fûkei), also known as the Processional Tôkaidô (Gyôretsu Tôkaidô), here called Tôkaidô meisho tsuzuki
Woodblock print
Tsukishimadera Temple in Hyôgo (Hyôgo Tsukishimadera), from the series Scenes of Famous Places along the Tôkaidô Road (Tôkaidô meisho fûkei), also known as the Processional Tôkaidô (Gyôretsu Tôkaidô), here called Tôkaidô meisho no uchi
Woodblock print
from the series One Hundred Pictures by Kyôsai (Kyôsai hyakuzu)
Woodblock print
More Seascapes Prints
Child of the Sea
1940
Woodblock print
The Beach at Kaiganji in Sanuki Province (Sanuki Kaiganji no hama), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen)"
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
Pacific Ocean, Awa Province (Boshu Taikai), from the series "Souvenirs of Travel, Third Series (Tabi miyage dai sanshu)"
Boshu Taikai
1925
Color woodblock print; oban
Pine Beach at Miho (Miho no Matsubara), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)"
September 1931
Color woodblock print; oban
Frequently Asked Questions
Safety on the Seas was created by Kawanabe Kyosai (河鍋暁斎).
Safety on the Seas depicts seascapes.