JESUS BIRTH IN A STABLE

The birth of Jesus in a stable — the nativity scene of Luke's Gospel, with Mary, Joseph, the infant in a manger, the oxen and donkey, the shepherds arriving from nearby fields — is rendered by Watanabe in the humble visual language of Japanese folk craft. The stable's earthen materials and working-animal presence are translated into the bold, warm tones of his katazome palette; the holy family is given the same unpretentious visual dignity as the farmers and fishermen of the mingei tradition. The poverty of the setting becomes a theological affirmation.