Five-storied Pagoda at Nikkō [bright sky] c. 1928 - 1930

Tsuchiya Koitsu made this woodblock print of a five-storied pagoda in Nikkō, and it’s all about the process of layering. What I mean by that is that you've got this super delicate, almost pointillist application of color, right? Tiny dots of blue and white to make the sky, and then these gorgeous, soft reds on the pagoda itself. It’s almost like the artist is building the image bit by bit. And if you look closely at the pagoda, each tier has these beautiful, gentle curves. They're not hard or rigid, but they're soft and yielding. It gives the whole thing this incredible sense of depth and space. It reminds me a little of Hiroshige, especially in the way he captures a sense of place and atmosphere. Art is like a visual conversation, right? Artists building on each other's ideas, riffing on old themes and making them new. There is something so nice about seeing how artists make this process their own.