Rakushisha Cottage

Rakushisha (落柿舎), the 'Cottage of Fallen Persimmons,' is a thatched-roof hermitage in the Sagano district of western Kyoto, historically associated with the haiku poet Mukai Kyorai, one of Matsuo Bashō's senior disciples. The site takes its name from an episode in which the unripe persimmons in the surrounding orchard fell during a storm, and Bashō composed his Saga Nikki here in 1691. Tokuriki's print most likely depicts the rustic structure beneath its overhanging eaves, framed by persimmon trees and a low garden wall typical of Sagano's quiet lanes. As a Kyoto-born artist embedded in the city's literary and artisanal traditions, Tokuriki returned repeatedly to such culturally resonant sites for his meisho-e, integrating the sosaku-hanga ethos of self-carving and self-printing with the older shin-hanga concern for atmospheric place. The composition would have been printed on washi from blocks Tokuriki cut himself, with bokashi gradations carrying the muted palette characteristic of his Kyoto views.