Maiko, Kyoto (H), Shôwa period, dated 1961

The 1961 Maiko Kyoto (H) print belongs to Saito's sustained engagement with the maiko—trainee geisha—as a subject for formal meditation. The maiko's elaborate costume, white makeup, and complex coiffure offered the same compositional richness as a Buddhist icon: an arranged surface of symbolic elements readable from a distance. The (H) designation marks this as the eighth in a series of maiko prints, each variant exploring a different pose or decorative arrangement of the figure.