Full moon over Kiyomizudera in spring

Kiyomizu-dera, the eighth-century Buddhist temple on the eastern slopes of Higashiyama, presents its butai (wooden stage) cantilevered over a hillside of cherry trees. In Kato's spring rendering, a full moon hangs above the pagoda and tile-roofed halls, casting a cool light that contrasts with the warmer pinks of blossoms below. The composition typical of his temple scenes places architectural elements — eaves, pillars, and the terraced platform — in careful registration, with the moon serving as a focal anchor in the upper register. The print would employ multiple key blocks for the wooden structures and color blocks for the gradient sky, with bokashi softening the transition from indigo at the apex to a paler horizon. Kato returned to Kiyomizu-dera repeatedly across the seasons, treating it as a personal theme on which he composed variations. The pairing of full moon and cherry blossoms invokes the classical aesthetic category of setsugekka — snow, moon, and flowers — long established in Japanese poetic and pictorial tradition.