Resting on the Earth

地に憩う
席地而憩
席地而憩
땅 위에서 쉬다

Shimizu Toshi went alone to the United States of America at a young age and spent almost twenty years living abroad. After returning to Japan, he painted peasants confidently like monuments. This was in the late 1920s and the 1930s, amidst the transition from the Taisho period to the Showa period. Both the society and culture were about to change significantly. This painting shows a family in a farming village relaxing. The shade of the tree painted in blue on the ground and the lumps of grass added here and there like polka dots are pleasant to look at. It seems just as if this is a view of Shimizu Toshi’s hometown, a farming village in the northern Kanto region, but it actually depicts Kikuna, Yokohama. Looking carefully, you will see that the mountain in the background is being cleared for development. During this period, the wave of development descended on farming villages in the Kanto area, too.