Ox and Man
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Japanese Art Open Database
The ox and man subject—a figure with a large draft animal—belongs to the pastoral tradition in East Asian painting, where the ox-herder allegory carried Zen philosophical meaning: the search for the ox as the search for one's own Buddha nature. Saito's treatment likely preserves the formal relationship between human and animal without the full allegorical apparatus, the contrast between the man's upright form and the ox's massive horizontal body creating the compositional tension that interested him.
Hebizukai
1932
Color woodblock print; oban
1935
Color woodblock print; oban
1964
Acrylic paint and oil pastel with oiled charcoal and ink over an ink and graphite underdrawing on paper
1964
Color lithograph with relief block and hand coloring; edition 35/36
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Ox and Man was created by Saito Kiyoshi (斎藤清).
Ox and Man depicts animals.
