Zao Hall, Yoshino (Yoshino Zaodo)

Kawase Hasui's 1950 color woodblock print "Zao Hall, Yoshino (Yoshino Zaodo)" depicts the covered interior of a wooden temple hall, its thick, dark cylindrical pillars supporting a beamed ceiling hung with round black floral crests and a single hanging lantern. Small groups of figures in dark coats and hats stand and sit beneath the colonnade, some seated on a raised green-matted platform at right, while through the open bays a bright green landscape with a flowering pink tree and glimpses of blue-clad figures is visible outside. The palette contrasts the muted browns and grays of the shadowed interior with the vivid greens and pink accent of the sunlit exterior beyond.