Ueno's Toshogu Shrine, nestled within the park complex, is captured here with the architectural precision that characterizes Kasamatsu's shrine and temple subjects. Watanabe lifetime editions sell for $800-$2,200. The ornate gold-leaf details of the actual shrine translate into rich color in the woodblock medium, and impressions with well-preserved metallic pigments are especially prized.
The Ueno Toshogu Shrine, dated 1953, appears in the postwar reconstruction of Tokyo's cultural landscape, its seventeenth-century shrine buildings surviving the wartime bombing that destroyed much of the city around them. Kasamatsu's 1953 depiction of the Toshogu captures a shrine that had acquired a new significance as a survivor — its gold-lacquered karamon and stone lantern-lined approach became symbols of continuity in a city being rebuilt from rubble. The print likely shows the shrine in cherry blossom season, its perennial subject.
Woodblock print
1928
Color lithograph
1930
Color lithograph
1948
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Ueno Toshogu Shrine (上野東照宮) was created by Shiro Kasamatsu (笠松紫浪) in 1953.
Ueno Toshogu Shrine uses Bokashi, Nishiki-e, and Moku-hanga, on woodblock print.
Ueno Toshogu Shrine was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1953).
Ueno Toshogu Shrine depicts urban scenes and temples & shrines, set at Tokyo, Ueno.
Ueno Toshogu Shrine measures 24 × 36 cm (Oban format).
