The Sea (Umi)
- Date:
- 1937
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; triptych
- Format:
- Oban triptych
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
"The Sea (Umi)" of 1937, executed as a color woodblock [triptych](/glossary/triptych), is one of Onchi's most ambitious marine compositions — the three-panel format giving the ocean subject the expansive horizontal space its scale demands. Made in the final years before the Pacific War would literally transform Japan's relationship to the sea, this triptych renders the ocean with the formal grandeur appropriate to its mythological and experiential significance. The triptych format itself carries art-historical weight, from Buddhist altar triptychs to European academic painting, which Onchi deploys in service of his most contemporary subject matter.
1940
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
Boshu Taikai
1925
Color woodblock print; oban
September 1931
Color woodblock print; oban
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
The Sea (Umi) was created by Onchi Koshiro (恩地孝四郎) in 1937.
The Sea (Umi) depicts seascapes.
