People Visiting Stable

People visiting the stable — the shepherds, and perhaps the Magi, arriving at the place of the nativity to see the child — present Watanabe with the communal dimension of the Christmas story. The gathering of disparate figures — poor shepherds from the nearby fields, learned travelers from distant lands — around the modest manger creates one of the Christian story's most egalitarian images, and Watanabe's mingei aesthetic, which honors the ordinary alongside the significant, is perfectly suited to render this gathering without hierarchy. All who come are equal before the child.