Original Wada Sanzo Woodblock Print Fortune Teller Uranai-shi Shrine Showa Oban 18"W LS#024

Wada Sanzō (1883–1967) — Fortune Teller (占い師, Uranai-shi), from Shōwa Shokugyō E-zukushi (Japanese Vocations in Pictures)

Vintage Japanese Shōwa Era, c.1940

The series was started in 1938 to immediate success, with the first two series published by Nishinomiya Shoin, but publication was halted in 1943 due to WWII. The third and final series was published in the 1950s by Kyoto Hanga-in. Series 1 and 2 were limited editions of 300 prints each. This impression is the postwar Kyoto Hanga-in printing from the original Series 2 blocks, c. 1952.

The scene unfolds at twilight near a shrine entrance: an elderly fortune teller seated at a folding table before a stone lantern, divining sticks in hand, attended by a couple — the man in Western suit, the woman in kimono with umbrella. The signpost behind him advertises omikuji (fortune slips), a hemorrhoid cure charm, and the shrine office, a detail of wry specificity characteristic of Wada's eye for the texture of ordinary Japanese life. A stray dog noses at scraps near an overturned cart in the shadows to the right. Rendered in Wada's fluid, painterly wash technique, the nocturnal atmosphere conveyed through graduated grey tones punctuated by the warm glow of the paper lantern. Signature 三造 with red artist's seal, lower right.

• Title: 占い師 (Uranai-shi — Fortune Teller)
• Artist: Wada Sanzō (和田三造, 1883–1967)
• Series: Shōwa Shokugyō E-zukushi (昭和職業絵尽 — Japanese Vocations in Pictures)
• Publisher: Kyoto Hanga-in, c. 1952 (printing from original prewar blocks)
• Format: Ōban yoko-e, approx. 14 3/4" W × 11 3/8" H (37.5 × 28.8 cm); color woodblock print on washi

Condition: Very good.