At the fortune teller

At the Fortune Teller depicts an uranaishi — a street or stall-based diviner — at work with a client. Such practitioners read palms, faces, and bamboo divining sticks (zeichiku) from low tables set up along urban thoroughfares, and remained a familiar sight in Showa-era cities. Wada's composition likely concentrates on the seated pair, the lantern or signboard advertising the trade, and the small paraphernalia of divination, arranged to underline the intimacy of the consultation. The print uses the firm contour drawing and limited colour palette characteristic of his postwar woodblock work, with bokashi gradations applied to ground or backdrop to reinforce mood rather than describe space. Within Wada's broader survey of Japanese occupations, the fortune teller sits alongside other figures of street commerce — yakitori grillers, candy vendors, and itinerant musicians — whose livelihoods depended on direct contact with passersby. The image documents a trade rooted in older custom, persisting visibly into the modern city.