Masao Ido, Gioji Temple, Kyoto, 1986, Woodblock Print

“Gioji Temple, Kyoto” — original Japanese woodblock print, Artist’s Proof by Masao Ido, 1986

Dimensions: 27.5 x 49 cm (10 13/16 x 19 5/16 in)

A luminous autumn view of Gio-ji, one of Kyoto’s most storied hidden temples, rendered by Masao Ido (1945–2016), one of the foremost woodblock printmakers of postwar Japan. Framed between dark, sinewy tree trunks, the composition glows with the artist’s signature palette of burnt orange, ochre and moss green — a hallmark of his ability to distill Kyoto’s seasonal light into bold, flattened planes of color while retaining the meticulous, multi-block precision of traditional moku hanga craftsmanship.

This impression is a rare Artist’s Proof (A/P), pencil-signed and titled by Ido in the lower margin, with his carved seal visible within the composition. Printed on washi paper in 1986, at the height of his mature style.

Born in 1945 in Japanese-occupied Manchuria, Ido moved to Japan as an infant and settled in Kyoto, where he trained first as a textile dyer under Yoshida Koho before turning to woodblock printmaking under Otsubo Shigechika. He opened his own studio and gallery in Kyoto in 1982, and by 1984 was himself teaching Seiji Sano, who became a noted printmaker in his own right. Ido’s work — prized for its nostalgic, idealized vision of gardens, temple grounds, and old streetscapes — is held in the collections of MoMA, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Kyoto and Tokyo National Museums, and the Florence Municipal Museum. He died in Kyoto in April 2016.

Gio-ji Temple Tucked in the hills of Kyoto’s Arashiyama district, Gio-ji is a small former nunnery famed for its moss garden and single thatched-roof hall. Its name comes from Gio, a court dancer of the Heian period who won the favor of the powerful warlord Taira no Kiyomori, only to be cast aside for a younger dancer, Hotoke Gozen. Heartbroken, Gio retreated here with her mother and sister to become a nun — a story immortalized in the 13th-century epic The Tale of the Heike. Remarkably, Hotoke Gozen herself later joined Gio at the temple in a gesture of reconciliation, and wooden statues of both women, along with Kiyomori, are still enshrined in the hall today. The temple is especially celebrated for its autumn foliage — the very scene captured in this print.

In printmaking, an Artist’s Proof is an impression pulled outside the numbered edition, traditionally reserved for the artist’s own use — for exhibition, personal archive, or gifting. A/Ps are typically produced in far smaller quantities than the numbered run, making them scarcer and, among collectors, often more desirable than standard edition numbers of the same image.

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