Funny boating

"Funny boating" is an etching depicting figures engaged in a boating excursion, rendered with the fine line work characteristic of the intaglio tradition. Yoshimura Junichi uses the etching needle's precision to capture a moment of levity on the water, likely showing one or more figures in a small craft in some state of comic predicament or awkward motion. The intaglio process — in which acid bites lines into a metal plate that is then inked and pressed against dampened paper — allows for subtle tonal variation through cross-hatching and aquatint, giving the scene both texture and depth. The work earned Yoshimura the Excellence Prize at the 2025 Awagami International Miniature Print Exhibition, a competition known for small-format works on Awagami's handmade Japanese [washi](/glossary/washi) papers. The figures subject matter places the print within a genre of quotidian scene-making, and the title signals an intentionally humorous reading of the composition — an approach that distinguishes Yoshimura's practice from more solemn treatments of similar themes in Japanese printmaking.