Rocky shore

A coastal subject that points back to Ido's origins on the Japan Sea coast in Shimane Prefecture, where he was born in 1945 before relocating to Kyoto as a young man. The composition likely shows weathered rock formations rising from the sea, perhaps with pine trees clinging to outcrops in the manner long associated with views of the San'in coast, the print's depth produced through layered impressions and bokashi to grade the water from foreground shallows to distant horizon. Mokuhanga is well suited to this subject: the registration of separate color blocks allows the printmaker to distinguish the matte texture of rock from the reflective, shifting surface of water, while the woodgrain itself can be exploited in the sky and water blocks to suggest weather and current. Although the bulk of Ido's mature work concentrates on Kyoto's temples, gardens, and traditional streetscapes, his coastal subjects extend the same rigorous attention to seasonal atmosphere into a different topography, drawing on a tradition of meisho-e treatment of Japan's seaward edges.