The Pagoda at Yasaka

Yasaka Pagoda — the five-story tower of Hokanji Temple in Kyoto's Higashiyama district — is among the most recognizable architectural landmarks in the former imperial capital and a recurring subject in meisho-e and shin-hanga landscape series. This print, one of at least three versions Nomura produced of the subject, depicts the pagoda rising above its densely built urban neighborhood, where the lanes of Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka approach from below. The layered roofs of the pagoda, diminishing in scale with each story, express an architectural refinement that woodblock printing renders naturally through the precision of the keyblock line. Surrounding structures — tiled roofs, bamboo fences, the canopy of a ginkgo or maple — frame the pagoda while establishing its relationship to the urban landscape. Seasonal coloring distinguishes variants; this version may emphasize a particular time of day or year through sky tone and the treatment of atmospheric light falling on the pagoda's weathered timber surfaces.