“Ritsurin Garden II” — Masao Ido, Original Sōsaku-Hanga Woodblock Print, 1980, Edition 59/120

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“Ritsurin Garden II” — Masao Ido, Original Sōsaku-Hanga Woodblock Print, 1980, Edition 59/120

A lush, sun-warmed view into one of Japan’s most celebrated strolling gardens: layered pine canopies and rolling lawns descend to a still pond, its surface banded in blues and greens and fringed by an overhanging maple branch in the foreground. Masao Ido builds the composition entirely through flat, confident fields of color — no outline, no woodgrain texture left visible — a hallmark of the bold, graphic sensibility that defines postwar Japanese sōsaku-hanga (“creative print”) design. The layering of near, middle, and far distance, achieved purely through value and hue rather than line, gives the print a quiet, immersive depth.

Titled “Ritsurin Kōen 2” (栗林公園2) in pencil, dated ‘80, signed “Masao Ido” in pencil, and numbered 59/120, with the artist’s seal impressed in red lower right. The sheet measures 29.5 x 43.5 cm (11.6 x 17.1 in).

Ritsurin Garden, in Takamatsu on the island of Shikoku, is among Japan’s most celebrated Edo-period landscape gardens. Construction began in the 1620s under the local Sanuki lord Ikoma Takatoshi and continued for over a century under the Matsudaira clan, who used it as a private strolling villa garden until the Meiji Restoration. Opened to the public in 1875, it is now rated the highest three stars in the Michelin Green Guide Japan and is renowned for its six ponds, thirteen artificial hills, and roughly one thousand meticulously pruned pine trees — the very scenery Ido captures here, with its sculpted pines framing the water.

Masao Ido (1945–2016) was a celebrated Japanese artist working in the Kyoto sōsaku-hanga tradition, known for richly layered, self-carved and self-printed woodblock views of Japan’s temples, gardens, and landscapes. This is the second in his personal series of views of Ritsurin, made a decade after the garden received formal recognition as a place of scenic beauty — a fitting subject for an artist devoted to capturing Japan’s landscape heritage in bold, modern color. Ido’s prints remain highly sought after by collectors of postwar Japanese printmaking.

A vivid, decorative addition to any collection of contemporary Japanese prints or garden-themed art.

Condition: Very good.

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

The print will be shipped insured oversea. Cost of transport to the US, Euro 145.

Wear consistent with age and use.

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