Ashizuri lighthouse

Ashizuri Lighthouse depicts the white tower at Cape Ashizuri, the southernmost point of Shikoku, perched on the dramatic cliffs that drop into the Pacific. Ido Masao's mokuhanga treatment likely contrasts the geometric verticality of the lighthouse against the irregular forms of the rocky headland and the horizontal expanse of sea, with [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations carrying the eye from foreground rock through middle-ground ocean to a banded sky. The white of the lighthouse would be carried by the unprinted [washi](/glossary/washi) itself, a standard mokuhanga economy where the paper does the lightest tonal work. The subject sits outside Ido's core Kyoto repertoire and connects instead to the broader [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) tradition of recording famous places across Japan — a lineage that runs from Hiroshige's stations through the [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) landscapes of the early twentieth century. The choice of a working modern structure rather than a temple or garden also reflects Ido's willingness to admit contemporary infrastructure as a legitimate subject for traditional technique.