Jacob tending Laban's flocks

Dated 1967, Jacob tending Laban's flocks is drawn from the Genesis narrative of Jacob's fourteen years of labor for his uncle Laban in exchange for the right to marry Rachel — a story of patience, cunning, and the working out of divine promise through the ordinary circumstances of pastoral life. Watanabe's katazome rendering of this subject focuses on the flock and their tender, the animals given the same bold simplified forms as the shepherd. The sheep, goats, and their caring human attendant are all participants in a story that unfolds through the patient rhythms of rural labor.