
Ryôan-ji, Kyoto, Shôwa period, dated 1960
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Harvard Art Museums
Description
Ryoanji's karesansui dry garden—fifteen stones arranged in raked white gravel, the entire composition enclosed by low clay walls—is among the most analyzed works of art in Japanese history. Saito's Showa-period 1960 version approaches the garden with characteristic restraint, refusing the temptation to reproduce its famous ambiguity and instead treating the composition as a structural problem: how to represent organized emptiness through a medium whose own logic is the organization of flat planes.
More Prints by Saito Kiyoshi
More Temples & Shrines Prints

Fushimi Inari Temple
伏見稲荷
Woodblock print

The Compound of the Tenman Shrine at Kameido in the Snow (Kameido Tenmangu keidai no yuki), from the series "Famous Places in the Eastern Capital (Toto meisho)"
c. 1832/38
Color woodblock print; oban

Temple with lanterns
Woodblock print

A Section of the Byodo Temple at Uji (Uji Byodoin no ichibu), from the series "Souvenirs of Travel, Second Series (Tabi miyage dai nishu)"
Uji Byodoin no ichibu
1921
Color woodblock print; oban
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ryôan-ji, Kyoto, Shôwa period, dated 1960 was created by Saito Kiyoshi (斎藤清).
Ryôan-ji, Kyoto, Shôwa period, dated 1960 depicts temples & shrines, gardens, and abstract, set at Kyoto.



