Scenes of a Coastal Community and Other Travel Notes

A steamship reaches a small harbor at dusk. Workers’ calls descend into a mournful cadence, colored banners rise against blue winter water, and a coastal festival draws its spectators into the movement of boats and a portable shrine.

Kinoshita Mokutarō observes these scenes with the eye of an artist and the memory of someone returning home. In “Scenes of a Coastal Community,” everyday work, songs, religious ritual and changing beliefs become part of a deeply felt portrait of Itō.

The opening travel notes turn to Kyoto and Osaka: advertisements, riverside cloth, antique prints, theater audiences and crowded streets provoke comparisons with Japanese and European art. A brief account of Itō in Izu finds the Italian coast echoed in the writer’s birthplace.