Higashiyama pagoda, Kyoto

"Higashiyama pagoda, Kyoto" almost certainly depicts the Yasaka Pagoda — the five-story pagoda of Hōkan-ji — in the eastern hills of Kyoto, a frequently rendered motif in the city's visual repertoire. The pagoda rises above the slate roofs of the surrounding Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka districts, and the composition likely frames the structure through the narrow stone-paved lanes and timber facades of preserved machiya. Ido Masao returned repeatedly to this view across his career, recording it in different seasons — under cherry blossom, in summer green, framed by autumn maple, and capped with snow. The print would rely on careful registration to align the timber framing of the pagoda's tiered eaves, the dark kawara roofs, and the contrast between architecture and sky. As a Kyoto subject, it sits at the center of Ido's documentary project: a streetscape under continual preservation pressure recorded through repeated mokuhanga witness across the four decades of his Kyoto practice.