Old pagoda

A study of a multi-story Buddhist pagoda, the architectural form Sasajima returned to repeatedly throughout his career. He spent decades documenting the temple complexes of Nara and Kyoto — Horyu-ji, Yakushi-ji, Kofuku-ji, and Toji each contain pagodas that appear in his oeuvre. The print likely emphasizes the stacked roofs as carved bands of dark ink, the architectural rhythm becoming the compositional structure. Bokashi gradation may model the recession of the eaves, while reserved washi defines the surrounding sky. Sasajima cut every block himself from cherry and pressed every impression by baren, following the sosaku-hanga method he absorbed from Onchi Koshiro. His pagoda prints register both the structural geometry of the architecture and the weathering of its timber — the visible grain of his blocks doubling as a record of centuries-old construction. The general title here points to age rather than specific identification, suggesting one of the historic pagodas central to his sustained study.