Peter Cut Ear of Soldier

Peter cutting off the ear of the soldier Malchus during the arrest of Jesus in Gethsemane — the one act of physical violence that Peter performs in the Gospels, immediately rebuked by Jesus — captures a moment of impulsive, misdirected loyalty. Watanabe's katazome rendering of this tense scene places Peter's sword arm, the falling soldier, and the surrounding darkness of the garden all within the bold forms of his stencil technique. The warrior's instinct and the teacher's immediate compassion (healing the ear) create a rapid moral drama in compressed narrative space.