Afternoon

Afternoon is an oban woodblock print that locates its subject in a specific time of day rather than a specific place or activity. The title suggests the languid hours between midday and evening, when light shifts from overhead to angular and the pace of life slows. Iwata likely renders this temporal quality through warm tones and the posture of his subject, whether figure or landscape. The oban format accommodates the unhurried feeling of the afternoon, its proportions well suited to compositions that breathe rather than compress.