Snow in Kamigamo Shrine, Kyoto

Description

This is one of the most famous woodblock prints by Takeji Asano. He made the design when he was active as an artist for the publisher Unsodo. During that time he made a number of prints with typical Shin-Hanga themes, as can be seen in this print. It features an imposing temple gate, the beauty of the red gate enhanced with a cover and surroundings of white snow and a man and a woman defying the winter cold to visit. Famous places, the beauty of nature and a human element together with them are a common presence in many Shin-Hanga prints, but not often in as perfect a composition as Takeji Asano created here. The tower gate depicted is the Romon Gate of the Kamigamo Shrine temple complex in Kyoto, one of the oldest and most important Shinto shrines of Japan, where to this day many people come to pray.