Leech gatherers

Three nearly identical figures stand in a row, each barefoot in a dark patterned short jacket, voluminous dark trousers gathered at the waist with a pale sash, and a cloth tied over the head, arms wrapped around a round black tub held against the torso. The black woodblock line is set on cream paper, with a wooden staircase and railing sketched in the upper left corner and the rest of the ground left blank; the artist's mark "UN-ICHI" appears at upper right, a red seal sits at lower left, and pencil inscriptions beneath the image include Japanese characters, "Un'ichi Hiratsuka," and "1918." *Leech gatherers*, a mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock print) by Hiratsuka Un'ichi, repeats the same standing pose three times, producing a uniform, rhythmic row of figures against the plain paper ground.