'Night Falls, a Dog Howls Deep in the Mountains, the God of the Hunt Appears', from Ryuri Hanga Saku

"Night Falls, a Dog Howls Deep in the Mountains, the God of the Hunt Appears" — from "Ryuri Hanga Saku" (1959) — is among Munakata's most atmospherically evocative titles, a narrative haiku that unfolds a complete scene in a single compound image. The mountain night, the howling dog signaling a presence beyond the village boundary, the god of the hunt appearing at the threshold of the human and wild worlds: these are the elements of a Shinto encounter, the sacred breaking through into ordinary night-time experience. The print would render this atmospheric narrative through the bold, direct carving that made his sacred subjects so immediate.