Sadao Watanabe - 三人の漁師 (Three Fishermen)

A fabulous print by Sadao Watanabe: 三人の漁師 (Three Fishermen). Three disciples stand together against a vivid red momi-gami ground, each holding a large fish - recalling the Gospel account of Peter, Andrew, James, and John called by Christ to become “fishers of men.” Their patterned robes in black, white, green, and yellow are rendered in Watanabe’s kappazuri stencil style, the textured handmade paper enhancing the rich colour contrasts. 🎣🟥✨

• Year & Edition: 1977 · Edition 43/70 (signed & editioned in white ink).
  
• Medium: Stencil print (kappazuri) on momi-gami paper.
  
• Dimensions: Sheet approx H: 59.00 cm × W: 46.00 cm.
  
• Condition: Wonderful deep red vibrancy; clean, intact sheet.
• Notes: A New Testament subject where fishermen become Christ’s first disciples, symbolising their call to be “fishers of men.” The fun, large, & graphic fish against Watanabe's vivid red ground and patterns mark this as one of Watanabe’s most striking works of the late 1970s. A smaller edition run piece of 70.

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]