Western Ships at Anchor

Catalog note / 解説

As in most of Zeshin's prints, here there is a marvelous realization of brushwork in a print medium, and this is perhaps the genius inherent in these works. The suggestion that the ships at anchor in the harbor may be a reference to the Black Ships of Commodore Perry, who in the 1850s opened Japan to Western commerce, is doubtful. For one thing, Perry did not arrive with such a great fleet. (Howard A. Link "The Art of SHIBATA ZESHIN-The Mr. and Mrs. James E. O'Brien Collection at the Honolulu Academy of Arts" - Robert G Sawers Publishing in association with the Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1979) ************************ Zeshin was a professionally trained painter, although he is better known t…