Seattle (1) (407)

The Seattle prints stand apart from almost everything else in Tanaka's catalogue. With its low number (407) the work belongs to his earlier period and reflects a brief engagement with American subjects, possibly tied to a visit or to a commission. The image likely depicts a residential or harbor scene — a wooden American house, a stretch of waterfront, or a view from the Pacific Northwest — rendered with the same patient descriptive attention he otherwise reserved for Japanese minka. The (1) in the title signals at least one further companion print of the same city, indicating a deliberate small series rather than a single experiment. While outside his core subject of rural Kansai, the print is consistent with his temperament: quiet exterior views, careful description of weathered materials, and the absence of human figures. It documents an unusual outward turn in a body of work otherwise tightly bound to the Japanese countryside.