Sadao Watanabe - 鶉を捕る少女 (Maidens and Quails)

A fabulous early print by Sadao Watanabe: 鶉を捕る少女 (Maidens and Quails). Figures gather quails among dense foliage, their patterned robes interwoven with birds and flowers. The scene recalls the Book of Numbers (11:31-32), where quails were sent by God to feed the Israelites in the wilderness. Printed in 1958 on washi paper, this work predates Watanabe’s shift to momi-gami and shows his emerging kappazuri stencil style in striking black pattern. ✝️🕊️

• Year & Edition: 1958 · Signed and dated in pencil “Sadao Watanabe” to lower right.
  
• Medium: Stencil print (kappazuri) on washi paper.
  
• Dimensions: Sheet H: 60.00 cm × W: 97.00 cm.
  
• Condition: Age-appropriate; general fading & toning, image intact and paper stable.
  
• Notes: An important early biblical subject where Watanabe draws on Old Testament text to merge Christian narrative with Japanese folk craft. The use of washi and black-on-ochre palette makes this an evocative example of his formative period. *Original gallery label verso.

About the Artist

Sadao Watanabe (1913-1996) was Japan’s foremost Christian printmaker, celebrated for bold 合羽摺 (kappa-zuri) stencil prints on textured momigami paper. A student of 芹沢銈介 Keisuke Serizawa and shaped by 柳宗悦 Yanagi Sōetsu’s mingei movement, he devoted his career to retelling Old and New Testament stories through striking elongated figures and rich pigments of colour, drawing on 型染め (katazome) dye-resist techniques. Particularly collectable, his works are widely held, with examples at MoMA, the British Museum, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (MOMAT), and the Vatican. [ ← View All Works by Sadao Watanabe]