Kiyomizu-dera Temple

Kiyomizu-dera, sited on the eastern hills of Kyoto, is identified with its main hall projecting on wooden pilings over the Otowa ravine. Nakazawa's print likely treats either the veranda viewed from below — emphasizing the lattice of pilings descending into the slope — or an oblique view of the hondo's tiled cypress-bark roofs. The subject was repeatedly worked in earlier ukiyo-e and revisited by every shin-hanga artist of the period; what differentiates Nakazawa's contribution is the suppression of contour line in favor of broad tonal areas, yielding a printed surface closer to wash drawing than to traditional nishiki-e. The cherry or maple foliage that surrounds the temple would be flattened into massed color rather than itemized leaf by leaf. The print belongs to his consistent project of applying the oil painter's vocabulary of value and atmosphere to the constraints of carved blocks and pigmented paper, declining the linear precision of his shin-hanga peers.