Shinobazu pond in Ueno Park

Shinobazu Pond, in the southwestern corner of Tokyo's Ueno Park, has been a recognized meisho since the Edo period, treated by Hiroshige and earlier [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) designers and known for its summer covering of lotus, its central island shrine to Benzaiten, and its seasonal views. Kitaoka's print updates the subject within the [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) vocabulary, retaining the [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) tradition's emphasis on identifiable place while applying his own carving and printing to the design. The pond's broad horizontals — water surface, embankment, treeline — lend themselves to compositions built from flat color zones, with [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradation handling the gradient of sky or water. As a Tokyo-born artist who studied at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts a short walk from Ueno, Kitaoka returned repeatedly to the city's parks and waterways, treating them as ongoing subjects rather than tourist sights. The print sits within his broader Tokyo topography alongside the Kanda River.