Yotsuya Scene (One Hundred Views of Tokyo, Message to the 21st Century 東京百景 21世紀へのメッセジ)

Created between 1989 and 1999, this late-career print belongs to the series "One Hundred Views of Tokyo: Message to the 21st Century," an ambitious project that Sasajima undertook in his eighties. The Yotsuya district, located in central Tokyo near Shinjuku, provided the specific urban subject. That Sasajima, primarily known for rural landscapes and Buddhist imagery, turned to systematic Tokyo documentation in his final decade echoes the great Edo-period precedent of Hiroshige's "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo." The series title's reference to the twenty-first century reveals a forward-looking intention: Sasajima was creating a record of Tokyo's late-twentieth-century character for future viewers. Producing such a large-scale series as a self-printing sosaku-hanga artist in his eighties and nineties represents a remarkable feat of sustained creative energy and physical stamina.