Church

An anomalous subject within Sasajima's catalogue, Church depicts what is almost certainly a Christian ecclesiastical building rather than a Buddhist temple. Its presence indicates that his architectural interest, while overwhelmingly directed toward Nara and Kyoto Buddhist complexes, occasionally extended to other sacred structures. The print likely treats the church with the same formal vocabulary he applied to Todai-ji or Horyu-ji: a dense black [sumi](/glossary/sumi) rendering of the building's massing, carving marks left visible across roof and wall surfaces, the structure isolated against bare [washi](/glossary/washi) without atmospheric setting. Sasajima's method does not distinguish between religious traditions in its formal language; the same engraver's discipline that recorded Buddhist hipped roofs and bracket sets is turned here to a façade of different lineage. The work confirms that for Sasajima, architecture was a category of subject defined by devotional weight and constructive integrity rather than by sect, and that the [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) principle of direct artisan engagement applied equally across his subjects.