“Katsura Imperial Villa” — Masao Ido, original Japanese woodblock print, signed & numbered 108/180, 1990

“Katsura Imperial Villa” — Masao Ido, Original Japanese Woodblock Print, Signed & Numbered 108/180, 1990

A rare, museum-quality architectural view by Kyoto master printmaker Masao Ido (井堂雅夫, 1945–2016), depicting a veranda of the Katsura Imperial Villa — one of Japan’s most revered examples of Edo-period design. Rendered in Ido’s signature palette (the muted olive-and-earth tones collectors know as “Ido Green”), the print captures the quiet geometry of sliding shoji screens, weathered thatch eaves, and a moss-edged stone garden with a single flowering tree — a composition that rewards patient looking the way the villa itself was designed to. Fine goma-zuri (sesame-seed) texturing gives the roof and walls a tactile, hand-worked surface rarely achieved in commercial printmaking.

The sheet is titled 桂離宮 (Katsura Rikyū) in pencil at lower left, dated ‘90, hand-signed by the artist at lower center, and numbered 108/180 at lower right, with the artist’s red seal stamped within the composition — all consistent, correct hallmarks of an authentic Ido edition. It is presented in its original Japanese gallery frame from Gado (雅堂), Kyoto, complete with the original artist’s biography card still affixed to the backing board — a wonderful piece of provenance in its own right.

Condition

Please note scattered light foxing to the mat and sheet margins, visible in the accompanying photographs — typical of Japanese prints of this vintage and not affecting the strength of the printed image itself. Sold in the original frame, ready to hang.

Dimensions

Framed: H 44.5 x W 57 x D 3 cm (H 17½ x W 22½ x D 1¼ in)

About Masao Ido

Born in 1945 in Beipiao, Manchuria, Masao Ido returned with his family to Japan after the war, eventually settling in Kyoto. He trained first as a textile dyer under Koho Yoshida before turning to woodblock printmaking in 1972 under Shigechika Ohtsubo, inspired by the celebrated sōsaku-hanga artist Kiyoshi Saito. Over a four-decade career, Ido became one of Kyoto’s most collected contemporary printmakers, devoting himself to the temples, gardens, and vanishing streetscapes of the old capital, rendered in his instantly recognizable “Ido Green.” His work entered the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Library of Congress, and he exhibited internationally throughout the 1980s and ’90s, including a New York exhibition the year before this print was made.

About Katsura Imperial Villa

Begun around 1615 by Prince Toshihito of the Hachijō-no-miya imperial line and expanded by his son Prince Toshitada, Katsura Rikyū is regarded as the supreme achievement of Japanese residential and garden architecture — a shoin-style villa and strolling garden inspired by scenes from The Tale of Genji. Its restrained proportions and seamless integration of building and landscape captivated 20th-century modernists such as Bruno Taut and Walter Gropius, and it remains an Important Cultural Property administered by the Imperial Household Agency. Ido’s choice of subject situates this print within the same lineage of quiet, disciplined beauty that Katsura itself embodies.

Colors may slightly vary due to photographic lighting sources or your monitor settings.

The print will be shipped insured overseas in a custom made wooden case. 
Cost of transport to the US, Euro 225, is case included.

Wear consistent with age and use.

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