This print deals with the dual Buddhist themes of suffering and transience. Bubbles of enlightenment are created within the moment of dread.

For as long as there have been boats there has been a fear of the deep. Sailors tell tales of the Kraken or the Leviathan, gargantuan creatures with tentacular arms that emerge from the gloom to drag down ships. No doubt these sea monsters are based on the giant squid that are sometimes found washed ashore. In Japanese folklore the Umibōzu has a large round head said to resemble the shaven heads of Buddhist monks, more like an octopus than a squid. The name Umibōzu, the green kanji, is derived from the characters for the sea and for monk. The Umibōzu is like a lost soul seeking vengeance and it will capsize the boat of anyone who dares to speak with it.

The monk in the inset is borrowed from a print named Nichiren Shonin (1931) by Unichi Hiratsuka that features heavily in Oliver Statler's classic text on Sosaku Hanga. Making this print was like an act of religious observance for Hiratsuka and he aimed to print ten thousand copies. The endless repetition of a simple task is said to bring enlightenment. By placing the monk inside a bubble I am also suggesting the Buddhist theme of transitory existence. If life is like a bubble we spend much time worrying about the bubble bursting. Lying beneath the froth and bubbles we can make out naked skull of death.