Pearldivers

Ama, the female divers of coastal Japan who harvest pearls and shellfish from the sea floor, are documented here as part of Wada Sanzo's series cataloguing Showa-period working life. The print likely depicts divers in their traditional white working garments, possibly with the specific equipment of the trade - wooden tubs (oke), weights, knives, or breathing rope. Ama have been a subject in Japanese art since the earliest ukiyo-e period, and Wada's documentary treatment continues a long pictorial tradition while updating it with his modernist compositional sensibility. Rendered with flat color planes and clear contour lines, the print reflects his synthesis of Western yoga training under Kuroda Seiki at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts with Japanese mokuhanga technique. The image was carved into multiple blocks and printed on washi using the baren, with bokashi gradations possible in water or sky. The pearl divers sit between traditional figures (nuns, oxcart drivers, pilgrims) and modern occupations (pilots, professional golfers, Western musicians) within the series, which collectively offers a sociological portrait of mid-twentieth-century Japan.