Toshogu Shrine (Toshogu)

The Toshogu Shrine complex at Nikko — built by the Tokugawa shogunate beginning in 1617 to enshrine the dynasty's founder, Ieyasu, and among the most ornate architectural ensembles in Japan — provides the subject for this 1937 print, which depicts one of its elaborately gilded and carved structures amid the surrounding ancient cedar forest. Yoshida had returned to Nikko subjects throughout his career, drawn by the dramatic combination of dense forest, mountain setting, and baroque architectural decoration that made the Toshogu unlike any other site in Japan. The gold, red, and black lacquerwork of the Toshogu's buildings, nested within the towering cryptomeria, created the kind of visual counterpoint between natural and human splendor that Yoshida found most generative.