Great Temple in Madura

Maker(s)
Artist: Yoshida Hiroshi 吉田博 (1876-1950)
Historical period(s)
Showa era, 1931
Medium
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Dimensions
H x W: 40.6 x 27.5 cm (16 x 10 13/16 in)
Geography
Japan
Credit Line
Gift of H. Ed Robison in memory of Katherine W. Robison
Collection
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Accession Number
S1996.17
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Print
Type

Woodblock print

Keywords
Japan, Showa era (1926 - 1989), temple, WWII-era provenance
Provenance

To 1996
Henry Edwin Robison (1913-2008), Palo Alto, CA, to 1996

From 1996
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, given by Henry Edwin Robison in 1996

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Henry Edwin Robison 1913-2008

Label

Yoshida traveled by train to Madurai (Madura) in the present-day Indian state of Tamil Nadu where he visited the great temple dedicated to the Hindu goddess Minakshi, and her husband, Shiva. Built in the seventeenth century, the temple is entered through long corridors.  Here the artist depicts the area just inside the entrance to the temple, where bright daylight gives partial illumination to the stone pillars in the forms of a Yali, a supernatural lionlike animal. Yoshida's fascination with rendering light and darkness is clearly expressed in his laborious printing of a layered color to reproduce the effect of natual light falling on the monumental stone carvings.

Collection Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Whistler's Neighborhood
Google Cultural Institute
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