Kobayashi Kiyochika designed this 1897 Meiji woodblock print of the Old Rakan Temple at Yabakei in Bungo Province for the series Famous Sights of Japan (Nihon meisho zue), one of the late landscape projects in which he extended the kosen-ga, or light ray pictures, tradition that had defined his early career into the topographical idiom of [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e). The composition frames the temple within the dramatic gorge scenery of Yabakei in present-day Oita Prefecture, where eroded volcanic cliffs rise above the Yamakuni River in a landscape long celebrated by haiku poets and travel writers. Kiyochika silhouettes the temple buildings and pilgrims against luminous, gradient skies, using carefully graded [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) printing to suggest mist drifting through the canyon and the soft optical recession of distant peaks. The Old Rakan Temple, Ko Rakan-ji, was famous for its hundreds of stone arhat sculptures clustered in the cliffside caves, and Kiyochika alludes to the site's spiritual character without resorting to anecdotal detail, instead allowing scale and atmosphere to carry the meaning. The print sits at the intersection of two of his lifelong interests: the precise observation of natural light he had absorbed from his exposure to Western painting and photography in 1870s Tokyo, and the classical [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) landscape lineage running from Hokusai and Hiroshige. Compared with his Tokyo night views, the palette here is brighter and more open, but the same disciplined tonal control governs the print, particularly in the modulation between sunlit rock face and shadowed gorge. Harvard Art Museums holds an impression of this design, where it is catalogued as part of Kiyochika's mature landscape output. The work documents both a specific pilgrimage destination and the broader Meiji project of reimagining Japan's regional geography for a modernizing audience through the woodblock medium.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Old Rakan Temple, Yabakei, Bungo Province (Bungo Yabakei Ko Rakan-ji), from the series Famous Sights of Japan (Nihon meishō zue) was created by Kobayashi Kiyochika (小林清親) in 1897 (Meiji 30).
Yes — Old Rakan Temple, Yabakei, Bungo Province (Bungo Yabakei Ko Rakan-ji), from the series Famous Sights of Japan (Nihon meishō zue) is part of the Famous Sights of Japan series by Kobayashi Kiyochika.
Old Rakan Temple, Yabakei, Bungo Province (Bungo Yabakei Ko Rakan-ji), from the series Famous Sights of Japan (Nihon meishō zue) depicts landscapes, temples & shrines, and famous places (meisho-e).
