Dojyoji

Dojyoji by Yoshitoshi Mori takes its subject from one of the most enduring stories in Japanese theatrical and religious literature, the legend of the bell of Dojoji Temple and the obsessive woman Kiyohime, whose unrequited love for the priest Anchin transforms her into a vengeful serpent. The narrative was canonized in noh, retold in kabuki as Musume Dojoji, and provided Mori (1898-1992) with rich material for the kind of dramatic, emblematic compositions at which he excelled. As a leading practitioner of kappazuri stencil prints within the sosaku-hanga (creative print) movement, Mori designed, cut, and printed every sheet himself, rejecting the workshop division of labor that defined Edo-period ukiyo-e. His kappazuri method, learned through his apprenticeship to mingei advocate Serizawa Keisuke, relied on hand-cut paper stencils and a rice-paste resist applied to washi, allowing him to lay down the broad black silhouettes and saturated color fields that became his signature. The Dojoji subject suited his vocabulary perfectly. The story's costumed dancer, oversized bell, and serpentine transformations invited bold outline, decorative pattern, and a tightly compressed pictorial space rather than naturalistic depth. Mori's interpretation strips the scene to its theatrical essentials, treating it as a graphic emblem rather than an illustrated moment. The result connects modern printmaking to the lineage of Edo-era theater prints while clearly belonging to the twentieth century. This impression is documented through the ukiyo-e.org consolidation of the Woodblock Prints (wbp) collection and exemplifies how Mori brought kabuki and noh narrative into the sosaku-hanga era.