Pagoda in Kyoto- Goju no To

The five-story pagoda (goju-no-to) of Kyoto's Toji or Ninna-ji temple rises through this 1942 composition with a quiet authority — its layered eaves ascending in diminishing rhythms against an open sky. Yoshida depicted pagoda architecture throughout his career, drawn to the structural logic of these towers and to the way their silhouettes anchored landscape compositions. Printed during the Pacific War, this work belongs to a period when Yoshida turned increasingly toward Japanese cultural subjects as international travel became impossible. The pagoda's permanence — a structure that had survived centuries of fire, earthquake, and upheaval — carries implicit weight in the wartime context.