Return of the Prodigal Son

The Return of the Prodigal Son — perhaps the most beloved of Jesus' parables, in which a father runs to embrace the son who had squandered his inheritance and returned in penitence — gave Watanabe one of his most emotionally expansive subjects. The father's running, embracing figure and the son's returning posture create a composition of pure reconciliation: the parent who neither judges nor waits in dignity but runs. Watanabe's mingei aesthetic gives this parable's radical grace the same direct visual force as the story's own narrative economy.