Towing a Boat

Three sailors with straw rain coats and hats are tugging a boat. Although the boat is beyond the edge of the canvas, the tension in the ropes they are pulling indicate the weight of the boat and the swift water flow. The cascade, wood and rocks are expressed without the use of outlines, in contrast to traditional Japanese paintings. Taikan, however, was very successful in expressing the wet atmosphere and texture in this work. He devised a technique to express air and light with his colleagues, encouraged by his teacher, Okakura Tenshin. The style was called “Moro” (obscure) and was widely ridiculed at the time; today, however, the technique is highly regarded as an important attempt to modernize Japanese paintings.