Feeling of Autumn.
I’m still a little obsessed with ukiyo-e prints old and new, and with good reason when you find examples like these. Kato Teruhide was one of a number of 20th-century printmakers who subjected the traditional form to modern refinements, which in this case means vertical views of architectural structures or spaces, some of whose close-ups and unusual angles show how photography has helped expand the visual possibilties of the medium. Ishibi Koji Street is a winter scene that presents a view directly above the street, something I’ve never seen before in this medium. Other scenes constrain their narrow viewpoints even further by the framing of walls or, in the case of the print of Fushimi Inari, the path through the thousand torii gates that lead visitors to the famous shrine. Teruhide pushed his medium close to abstraction without ever being as stylised as some of his contemporaries. Kyoto Romance, a book of his prints, was published in 1992.
Ishibe Koji Street.
Bright Moonlight at Ryoan-ji Temple.
Nisonin Temple.
Harvest Moon.
Blue Moon.
Crossing Umbrellas.
Purple Breeze in Arashiyama.
Autumn Moon at Zen Garden of Ryoan-ji Temple.
Beautiful Autumn in Kyoto.
Latticework of Floral Designs.
Kiyomizudera Temple in Autumn.
Yasaka-Pagoda under the Moon.
Kogetsudai.
A Thousand Torii at the Fushimi Inari Shrine.
Autumn in Sagano.
Snowy Alley.
Red Umbrella in Alley.
Spire of Gion Festival Float.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Fifteen ghosts and a demon
• Hiroshi Yoshida’s India
• The art of Hasui Kawase, 1883–1957
• The art of Paul Binnie
• Nineteen views of Zen gardens
• Ten views of the Itsukushima Shrine
• Charles Bartlett’s prints
• Sixteen views of Meoto Iwa
• Waves and clouds
• Yoshitoshi’s ghosts
• Japanese moons
• The Hell Courtesan
• Nocturnes