Toji Temple's iconic five-story pagoda — the tallest wooden tower in Japan — stands strikingly against a winter sky in this composition. Snow accumulating on the pagoda's successive roofs creates a layered visual rhythm that Asano renders with precision. This popular Kyoto subject generally sells for $200-$500.
Snow in Toji Temple presents Kyoto's great Shingon Buddhist temple — home to the city's most celebrated pagoda and the largest collection of Buddhist sculpture in Japan — in winter snowfall. Toji's five-story pagoda, at 54.8 meters the tallest wooden structure in Japan, dominated the southern approaches to the old capital and appeared in countless representations. In snow, the pagoda's multiple tiers each carried their individual cap of white, creating a vertical accumulation of horizontals that Asano rendered with careful attention to the specific quality of winter light on wooden architecture.
Woodblock print
c. 1832/38
Color woodblock print; oban
Yuki no Miyajima
1929
Color woodblock print; oban
1932
Woodblock print
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Snow in Toji Temple (東寺雪) was created by Takeji Asano (浅野竹二).
Snow in Toji Temple uses Bokashi, Nishiki-e, and Moku-hanga, on woodblock print.
Snow in Toji Temple was published by Unsodo.
Snow in Toji Temple depicts snow scenes and temples & shrines.
