Kabuto gate of Konnichi-an

Konnichi-an ('Hut of Today') is the historic tea room at the Urasenke headquarters in Kyoto, established in the seventeenth century by Sen Sōtan, grandson of Sen no Rikyū. The kabuto-mon, or 'helmet gate,' takes its name from the curved profile of its roof, which suggests a samurai's helmet, and serves as one of the principal entrances into the Urasenke compound. Tokuriki's print most likely renders the gate among its surrounding tile-capped earthen walls and approach path, materials and forms central to Kyoto's chashitsu architecture. As the twelfth-generation representative of a Kyoto artisan family long tied to Honganji and to the city's traditional crafts, Tokuriki had unusual access to this material, and the work belongs with his sustained meisho-e treatment of Kyoto's religious and ceremonial sites. The mokuhanga technique—blocks carved in cherry wood and pigments brushed and printed by baren onto handmade washi—suits the restrained surfaces and quiet geometry of Urasenke architecture, with bokashi likely used for the wall and ground tones.