Signal (B), 1962

Color woodblock print

18 7/8 x 24 3/8 inches (47.9 x 61.9 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of
Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1964  

1964-22-6

In Signal (B), Saitō gives us a sense of the landscape of industrialized Japan through the use of stark geometric shapes and subdued colors. The gray speckled ground, silhouetted cityscape, metal structure in the foreground, and red stoplight would all have been printed using separate woodblocks applied sequentially to the paper. The scene may depict the hush after the departure of the last train of the night at 1 a.m. and the resumption of train
service around 5 a.m.

Katelyn Hobbs