Key value factors: As self-carved and self-printed works, sosaku-hanga value is tied to the artist's reputation and edition size. Larger formats, earlier editions, and historically significant works command the highest prices.
Dockhand, a 1957 color woodblock, depicts a waterfront laborer, a subject that aligns Nakao Yoshitaka with the [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) tradition's interest in working-class subjects. The dockworker's body, shaped by physical labor, provides Nakao with a figure whose musculature and posture tell a story of daily exertion. The color woodblock medium allows Nakao to differentiate the tones of weathered skin, work clothing, and the industrial waterfront setting. Created in the same productive year as several other figure studies, this print shows Nakao building a catalog of working people whose bodies carry the evidence of their occupations.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Dockhand was created by Nakao Yoshitaka (中尾義隆) in 1957.
Dockhand depicts figures, craftspeople, and daily life.
![[Grey Figure Posing] by Nakao Yoshitaka](https://1.api.artsmia.org/800/135848.jpg)
