Sanzen-in in Kyoto

Sanzen-in stands in the mountain hamlet of Ōhara, an hour north of central Kyoto, and is identified above all with the Yūsei-en moss garden surrounding its Ōjō Gokuraku-in hall, where small stone jizō figures rest among the cushions of moss beneath maple and cedar canopy. Ido's treatment of the subject typically frames the hall's hipped, copper-edged roof through layered tree trunks, with the moss surface rendered in densely overprinted greens that build texture through repeated [baren](/glossary/baren) passes. [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) at the boundary between sunlit and shaded moss is essential to the depth effect. If the print is autumn-themed it incorporates the koyō for which Ōhara is locally celebrated; if late spring or summer, the dominant register is the moss itself. Within the artist's wider catalogue, Sanzen-in pairs with his Jakkō-in print to form a small Ōhara grouping, complementing the central-Kyoto temple subjects with imagery of the mountain villages on the city's northern fringe.