Umigame (Turtle) / Going Home

The umigame, or sea turtle, carries associations in Japanese visual culture with longevity and with the realm of the sea, including the legendary Ryūgū-jō palace of Urashima Tarō. The subtitle Going Home frames the turtle's movement as a return, likely to open water after coming ashore. The mezzotint's even, dark ground is well-fitted to underwater or twilit beach light, where form is read primarily through tonal gradient rather than line. Through selective burnishing the artist would model the rounded carapace, the textured shell scutes, and the displaced sand or water surrounding the animal. Animal studies of this kind sit alongside the insect editions in Hiroshima's broader catalogue and reflect his consistent attention to small lives observed at quiet moments — a sensibility shared with several of the artists for whom he served as printer.