Ikarugadera Temple in Early Autumn, Hiratsuka Unichi

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Hiratsuka Unichi was one of the most important early leaders of the Creative Print movement (Sōsaku Hanga). He is best known for his powerful, simplified compositions using only black pigment on white paper. This unusually large woodblock print is considered his masterpiece. Here, he depicts the ancient five-storied pagoda at Hōryūji, one of Japan's earliest and most important Buddhist temple complexes, located in the village of Ikaruga near Nara. The pagoda and other buildings in the compound stand today as the oldest wooden structures in the world.

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Hiratsuka was an important figure in the twentieth-century Sōsakū-hanga or "creative print" movement. Artists of this movement broke with tradition by carving and printing their own blocks. Hiratsuka influenced many other modern printmakers and ran a thriving studio in Tokyo before World War II. The artist moved to the United States in 1967, settling in Washington D.C., where he taught studio arts classes at the Smithsonian Institution.

This image juxtaposes modern experimental techniques such as bold knife cuts and varying textures with traditional imagery, in this case a view of the five-storied pagoda of Horyūji, the oldest Buddhist temple complex in Japan. The large format makes the venerable building seem monumental and gives a sense of the importance of the temple.