Kinkaku-ji in Spring (Haru no Kinkaku-ji), Shôwa period, dated 1969

Dated 1969, this print depicts Kinkaku-ji — the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto — in its spring setting, with the three-story structure reflected in the Kyoko-chi mirror pond and framed by flowering cherry or new-growth foliage. The subject is one of the most depicted in Japanese art, requiring a printmaker to find a distinctive interpretive approach rather than replication. Kitaoka likely used color reduction or bold simplification to avoid pastiche of earlier treatments. Spring at Kinkaku-ji introduces pink-white blossom masses and fresh greens against the gold leaf pavilion, with the reflective pond providing a vertical compositional anchor. The 1969 date places this in his late-career period, when his formal control of the woodblock medium was at its most developed.