Country Courtyard, Kyoto

Despite the Kyoto attribution, this lithograph depicts the agricultural or artisanal margins of the city rather than its celebrated shrines and gardens. Williams was drawn throughout his career to the vernacular Japan that tourists and art historians largely passed over — the machiya townhouses, packed-earth courtyards, and outbuildings that defined life in the city's older residential quarters. The composition likely frames an enclosed yard with traditional architectural elements: worn tile, wooden lattice, stone pavers, perhaps a ceramic vessel or garden implement. Williams's lithographic draftsmanship captures the accumulated textures of age without sentimentality, presenting the courtyard as a functional working space rather than an aesthetic object.