Obai Temple

Ōbai-in is a sub-temple within the vast Daitoku-ji complex in northern Kyoto, founded in 1583 as the bodaiji of the Mōri clan and closely tied to the wabi-cha tea tradition through its association with Sen no Rikyū. The Naka-roji moss garden and the Bokuseki-no-niwa rock garden are its principal subjects for landscape artists. Ido's print most likely takes the approach roji — a stepping-stone path crossing carpet-thick moss, flanked by clipped azalea and shaded by a few specimen maples — with a corner of the kuri kitchen building or zen-shū gate anchoring one side. [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) handles the dappled light across the moss surface, while careful key-block work delineates the irregular stepping stones. Printed on [washi](/glossary/washi) through multiple color passes, the sheet belongs to Ido's Daitoku-ji grouping alongside Kōtō-in and Daisen-in, all chosen for the way their Momoyama-period tea-garden design distills Kyoto's cultural inheritance into compact, intensively designed enclosures.