Umi no dowa (Fairy-tale of the Sea)
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- British Museum
Description
"Umi no dowa (Fairy-tale of the Sea)" returns Onchi to the sea as a site of imagination and narrative — the ocean as the domain where the impossible becomes possible, where the rules of the ordinary world no longer apply. His sea fairy-tale prints consistently engaged the intersection of the natural world's actual grandeur with the human imagination's need to populate that grandeur with story. The specifically Japanese tradition of sea mythology (the dragon palace beneath the waves, the turtle-borne traveler) provided Onchi with a cultural vocabulary that his formal modernism could engage and transform.
More Prints by Onchi Koshiro
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
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Umi no dowa (Fairy-tale of the Sea) was created by Onchi Koshiro (恩地孝四郎).
Umi no dowa (Fairy-tale of the Sea) depicts seascapes.