Drummaker

This print from Wada Sanzo's Showa Shokugyo Emaki (Pictures of Occupations in Showa Japan), produced between 1939 and 1940, depicts a taiko drum maker at work. The drummaker (taiko-shi) is shown stretching cowhide over a hollowed wooden barrel body, a labor-intensive craft requiring precise tensioning to achieve the instrument's resonance. Wada's characteristic flat color planes and confident outlining show the influence of his Western yoga training under Kuroda Seiki at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, while the printing technique remains rooted in mokuhanga tradition. The composition emphasizes the geometric solidity of the drum body and the focused posture of the artisan. This series, comprising seventy-two occupational portraits, was conceived as both ethnographic record and artistic statement, preserving traditional trades that were already disappearing as Japan industrialized. Wada's prints from this period combine the dignity of his oil painting practice with the graphic clarity of nishiki-e, marking him as a singular figure bridging sosaku-hanga sensibility with applied documentary purpose.