Fisherwomen

Fisherwomen depicts women at coastal work — most likely ama divers or shore-based gatherers of shellfish, seaweed, and small catch. The trade was one of the few in Japan historically dominated by women and concentrated in regions such as Mie, Chiba, and parts of the Japan Sea coast. Wada's design likely arranges the figures along a horizontal band suggestive of shoreline or boat, their working garments — short jackets, headcloths, and tucked skirts — rendered through flat colour planes typical of his Showa-era prints. The contour drawing carries the weight of the composition, with bokashi gradations possibly worked into sea or sky. The print fits within Wada's sustained documentary project recording Japanese occupations across both traditional and modern sectors. Where his urban scenes captured the rhythms of trades such as baking, hairdressing, and office work, the fisherwomen sheets place coastal labour within the same cataloguing impulse, treating the workers as skilled tradeswomen rather than picturesque subjects.