Temple Of Amon, Luxor

The Luxor Temple, on the east bank of the Nile in ancient Thebes, was dedicated to the Theban god Amon and built primarily under Amenhotep III and Ramesses II. Tokuriki's depiction of an Egyptian site is unusual within his largely Japan-focused output and suggests participation in the small body of postwar prints in which Japanese artists treated foreign monuments as meisho-e. The composition likely centers on the great colonnade or one of the entrance pylons, rendered through the linear discipline of mokuhanga even as the subject lies far from the genre's traditional repertoire. The translation of weathered sandstone into the language of woodblock printing relies on careful key-block cutting to suggest hieroglyphic relief, with a restrained palette of ochre and brown evoking the stone's color. Such international subjects appeared in Tokuriki's work from the 1950s onward, when increased Japanese travel abroad generated demand for prints documenting heritage sites overseas.