Yakushiji Temple East tower (Nara)

A view of the East Pagoda (Tōtō) of Yakushiji, the eighth-century Buddhist temple complex in Nara and the only structure on the site to survive from its original construction. The three-story pagoda is distinguished by its mokoshi — the additional pent roofs between each story that produce the rhythmic, stepped silhouette long described in Japanese architectural writing as frozen music. Saito's etching likely treats the pagoda as a study in vertical line and bracketed tier, the bitten line registering rafter ends, the sōrin finial, and the overlap of the eaves. Architectural subjects sit slightly apart from Saito's bijin-ga and Genji work, but they belong to the same broader genre of meisho-e — pictures of famous places — that runs through Japanese print history. The plate places a modern European-derived intaglio technique against one of the oldest surviving monuments in the country.