Escape, Shôwa period, dated 1962

A 1962 dated version of the "Escape" subject, this print from Watanabe's early career demonstrates his katazome technique in one of its earliest documented applications to a narrative Biblical subject. The 1962 date places it in the same productive year as his Nativity and Three Wise Men prints — a year in which he was establishing the core vocabulary of his Biblical print practice. The escape narrative, whether from Egypt or Herod, carries the same fundamental drama of faithful departure into the unknown.