Mendicant Priests

Mendicant Priests, from Wada Sanzo's Shōwa Shokugyō Emaki, depicts itinerant Buddhist clergy soliciting alms. The figures are most plausibly komusō of the Fuke Zen sect, identifiable by the deep tengai woven-straw basket-hat that conceals the face entirely, the kesa robe and the shakuhachi flute carried for ritual playing, though henro pilgrims in white robes with kongō-zue staff are an alternative reading. Wada arranges the figures as a compact group of repeated vertical forms, the basket-hats reading as nearly identical color masses against a flat ground — a graphic strategy that emphasizes their status as a recognizable type rather than as individuals. The print is executed with the series' characteristic broad color planes, firm keyblock outline and restrained palette, and avoids the atmospheric bokashi favored by shin-hanga contemporaries. The subject continues an Edo tradition of recording occupational and religious types in ukiyo-e, but Wada's flattened, design-led handling reflects his yōga training and the sōsaku-hanga emphasis on the artist's hand throughout design and supervision.