Odawara Castle

Odawara Castle in Kanagawa Prefecture — the great fortress of the Hojo clan, destroyed in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's 1590 siege and reconstructed in reinforced concrete in 1960 — is rendered here with Kitaoka's characteristic geometric clarity. The castle's tiered rooflines and white plastered walls offer natural material for a modernist compositional study, the traditional forms of Japanese castle architecture aligning unexpectedly well with Kitaoka's preference for bold, clean-edged masses of form and color.