Tôshôgu Shrine, Nikkô, Shôwa period, dated 1937

Date:: Shôwa period, 1926-1989
Medium:: Woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Publisher:: Yoshida Studio
Source:: Harvard Art Museums

Typical Price

Temple and shrine subjects are among the most consistently popular categories in Yoshida's output. Standard jizuri prints of temple subjects cluster around $2,149 (dealer price benchmark from 1stDibs), with Chion-in Temple Gate listed at $3,600 and Toshogu Shrine in standard jizuri condition at approximately $2,149. Night or seasonal variants of temple subjects command additional premiums.

Jizuri (artist-supervised) seal: $1,500–$4,000
Studio/posthumous edition: $400–$1,200

Description

Tōshōgū Shrine at Nikkō, dated 1937 in the Shōwa period, depicts the mausoleum complex of Tokugawa Ieyasu in its setting of ancient cedar forest and mountain valley. Yoshida's print renders the shrine's celebrated decorative program — the Yōmeimon gate, the Karamon, the lacquered corridors — with the precision of a printmaker trained in close observation of surface and structure. The Nikkō buildings represent the apex of Japanese ornamental architecture, and Yoshida's choice to print them reflects both their canonical status and his confidence in translating complex architectural subjects into the woodblock medium.