Masao Ido “Summer at Yakushiji Temple” — Original Japanese woodblock print, signed & numbered

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Masao Ido “Summer at Yakushiji Temple” — Original Japanese woodblock print, signed & numbered.

A luminous mid-summer view of Yakushiji Temple in Nara, one of Japan’s great UNESCO World Heritage sites, rendered by master printmaker Masao Ido (1945–2016) in his signature layered, atmospheric palette. The temple’s twin pagodas rise above a dense band of green foliage, their forms — and those of the surrounding hills — mirrored in the still water of the temple’s Kondei-ike pond at dusk. Ido builds the scene through subtle bokashi gradations of blue, green, and violet, giving the whole composition a hushed, contemplative quality that has made his work sought after by collectors of contemporary Japanese woodblock prints worldwide.

Titled, signed, dated (’96), and numbered 106/250 by the artist in pencil in the lower margin, with his red seal impressed directly into the image. Presented in its original Japanese frame with a soft beige silk-textured mat — never re-framed, in excellent condition, ready to hang.

Dimensions (frame): H 36 x W 60 x D 3 cm / H 14.2 x W 23.6 x D 1.2 in

The Artist

Born in 1945 in Japanese-occupied Manchuria, Masao Ido moved to Japan with his family after the war and settled in Kyoto, the city that would define his artistic identity. He trained first under Yoshida Koho in traditional textile dyeing, then studied woodblock printmaking under Otsubo Shigechika and Takeji Asano, key figures in Kyoto’s sōsaku-hanga (“creative print”) movement. By 1984 Ido himself was teaching, mentoring the printmaker Seiji Sano. Over his career he became one of the most celebrated contemporary Japanese woodblock artists, with work held in the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Kyoto and Tokyo National Museums, and the Florence Municipal Museum. Ido is best known for tranquil, meticulously observed views of Kyoto and Nara’s temples, gardens, and preserved streetscapes, built up through the traditional multi-block, hand-pulled printing process and finished with his own poetic use of color gradation.

The Scenery

Yakushiji Temple, founded in 680 CE by Emperor Tenmu in prayer for his ailing consort, is one of Nara’s Seven Great Temples and part of the UNESCO-listed “Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara.” Its hallmark is a rare symmetrical layout with twin three-story pagodas — the East Pagoda, an original 8th-century structure, and its reconstructed twin, the West Pagoda — flanking the Kondo (main hall). Ido’s print captures this iconic silhouette across the water in the soft light of a summer evening, a view long favored by artists and pilgrims alike.

The Style

Ido worked in the sōsaku-hanga (“creative print”) tradition, in which the artist designs, carves, and prints the work personally rather than dividing labor between designer, carver, and printer as in classical ukiyo-e workshops. His hallmark techniques — layered bokashi color gradation, flattened planes of foliage, and softly blurred distant mountains — lend his temple and garden scenes a dreamlike, almost meditative stillness, bridging traditional Japanese landscape subjects with a distinctly modern printmaking sensibility.

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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