Scene of Cormorant Fishing

Tomikichiro Tokuriki

An image of a Japanese fisherman using an ancient traditional cormorant method in which cormorant birds are controlled by snares and lines. The fisherman brings along a torch inorder to attract fish and, once the cormorant scoops up the prey, it is pulled into the boat. Dating to the 7th century BC, cormorant fishing was also present in China, North Macedonia, Greece, England, and France. Today, the technique is mostly extinct except in the Gifu Prefecture, Japan, where master fishermen are employed by the Emporer, and given the title of Imperial Fishermen.

Tomikichiro Tokuriki was a 20th century Japanese Modernist printmaker, who used traditional Japanese woodcut methods and more contemporary composition to illustrate the daily lives of working people, floral and insect subjects, and landscapes. He was known for his use of notan to create vivid, high contrast imagery. Here, the smoking torch of the fisherman shoots like a fireball through the center of the composition, the sky and sea beyond it a swirl of deep, shadowy indigos and greens.

This image features saturated colors, and the paper is bright and fresh. A one inch tab of old tape is in the lower center margin which is easily matted out. The condition is reflected in the price.