Woman of Canaan, Shôwa period, dated 1962

A 1962 Canaanite woman (Woman of Canaan) — the gentile mother who persists in begging Jesus to heal her daughter despite his initial refusal, whose faith he ultimately commends as greater than any he has found in Israel — gives Watanabe a subject of remarkable theological boldness: a woman outside the covenant community whose persistence breaks through conventional boundaries. The katazome stencil technique renders her with the same visual dignity as the Jewish disciples and teachers who surround the Gospel's central figure. Her faith is made visible through her physical presence in the composition.