Autumnal Leaves on the Sluice Gate

This oban woodblock print focuses on a sluice gate partially obscured by autumnal leaves, an unusual subject that combines infrastructure with seasonal beauty. The gate's weathered wood and iron fittings contrast with the delicate, flame-colored leaves that have drifted onto and around the structure. Shoda finds visual poetry in this unlikely pairing, treating the functional waterworks equipment as an anchor for the transient beauty of falling foliage. The leaves cling to the gate's surfaces and float in the water below, creating a layered composition that moves between human engineering and natural cycles. Water flows through or around the gate with a force suggested by the directional brushwork, while the leaves drift with gentler currents above. The print transforms a mundane rural feature into a meditation on the collision of permanence and impermanence.