Temple Bell

Medium:: Woodblock print
Publisher:: Yoshida Studio
Source:: ukiyo-e.org

Typical Price

Temple Bell is a contemplative study of one of Japan's most evocative sounds made visual -- the massive bronze bell housed in a wooden belfry. Studio editions from the Yoshida workshop range from $300-$900, while jizuri editions bearing the self-printed seal sell for $600-$1,500. Temple bell subjects appear throughout Japanese art history, and Toshi's treatment balances reverence for tradition with his own modern sensibility.

Description

Temple Bell captures the moment of the great bronze bell — suspended in its timber belfry at a Japanese Buddhist temple — at the threshold of sound, when the bell's form and material presence are most fully realized before or after the stroke that sets it ringing. Yoshida's treatment of the temple bell subject connects it to the long Japanese aesthetic tradition of the kane as an object of profound resonance, both acoustic and spiritual. The bell's dark bronze surface, its carefully incised Sanskrit characters and decorative moldings, are rendered with the attentive observation of his finest work.