Bridge

The image presents a Japanese bridge — likely a timber span of the kind found along temple precincts or rural pilgrimage routes — drawn from Sasajima's lifelong attention to traditional architecture. While he is principally identified with the temple complexes of Nara and Kyoto, the bridges connecting those sites appear periodically in his work. The treatment emphasizes the structural geometry of beams, balustrades, and abutments rather than picturesque atmosphere, with heavy black blocks defining the shadows beneath the span and the chisel marks left as a visible record of process. Sasajima's commitment to carving and printing every block himself, a discipline learned under Onchi Koshiro in the late 1930s, kept his line direct and his palette restrained — typically [sumi](/glossary/sumi) black with one or two muted earth pigments on [washi](/glossary/washi). The bridge functions less as a landscape motif than as a study in joinery and weathered wood.