Golden pavilion

Kinkaku-ji, the Rokuon-ji temple's reliquary hall, is the three-story structure whose upper two floors are sheathed in gold leaf. Tokuriki's print almost certainly depicts the standard view from across the Kyoko-chi pond, with the building's reflection doubling its presence on the water's surface. The composition typically frames the pavilion with foreground pines and background hill foliage, exploiting the gold against deep green. Achieving the metallic sheen in mokuhanga requires either yellow-ochre pigments mixed with mica or actual gold pigment applied through a dedicated block. Pine boughs would be cut with crisp keyblock outlines while distant slopes would be rendered with bokashi. A frequently reproduced Kyoto subject in Tokuriki's output, the Golden Pavilion appears in multiple editions across his career, from prewar shin-hanga commissions through postwar tourist-oriented sosaku-hanga.