Takao Shingoji Temple

Jingo-ji at Takao presented Kotozuka with one of the defining landscape subjects of his career: a mountain temple approached by long stone stairs through dense mixed woodland, with the Kiyotaki River valley falling away below. This impression is among the foundational variants of the composition, likely rendered in the muted greens and grays of spring or the saturated ochres and crimsons of autumn. The temple's Heian-period roots and its position far from the Kyoto basin gave it an atmosphere of remove that suited Kotozuka's atmospheric idiom. Ink gradations on the sky block, achieved through careful bokashi wiping on dampened washi, are characteristic of his approach to naturalistic light. Multiple blocks were needed to render the tiered spatial recession from foreground foliage through mid-ground architecture to distant ridgelines.