Eigamura

Eigamura, the Toei Kyoto Studio Park in Uzumasa, is a recreated Edo-period townscape used as a filming set for jidaigeki period dramas. Karhu's print depicts the wooden machiya facades, sloping kawara-tile roofs, and earthen walls characteristic of the preserved architectural ensemble. The image is built from his signature sumi-toned key block, pressed with the baren onto absorbent washi, with flat color planes of muted earth tones layered through successive impressions registered by kento marks. Karhu spent decades documenting Kyoto's vernacular architecture, and this subject extends his preoccupation with the fabric of the old capital — even when, as at Eigamura, the structures are themselves twentieth-century reconstructions of older forms. The reduction of the streetscape to its essential structural elements — beam, post, lattice, tile — typifies the geometric clarity of his mature style and his alignment with the sosaku-hanga tendency to treat the print as an autonomous artistic object rather than a reproductive craft.