Katsura Villa, Garden viewed from the western part of the Main Room of the Sokintei Pavilion, 1982
Type c-print (printed c. 2008)
Print size 39 ¼ × 49 ½ in.
Framed size 41 ½ × 51 ½ in.
Edition 4 of 15
Signed and editioned on label verso
August 25, 2025
This timeless photograph reveals an intriguing connection between photography and traditional Japanese architecture, in the way that they both serve as visual framing devices. Katsura Imperial Villa is a seventeenth-century villa in Kyoto, with interiors constructed and subdivided by shoji—translucent wooden lattice screens—which can be moved to change the space and frame views, like the garden and pond seen here.
As a Japanese American photographer, Yasuhiro Ishimoto was uniquely suited to bring a fresh perspective to Japanese architecture. Ishimoto trained at the Institute of Design in Chicago, which was founded by László Moholy-Nagy as “the New Bauhaus”, giving him a strong background in Modernist design and photography. Ishimoto studied with Harry Callahan, who connected him with the curators at MoMA, first Edward Steichen and then architecture curator Arthur Drexler, who hired Ishimoto as a Japanese guide in 1953, resulting in his first visit to the Katsura Villa.
Ishimoto’s photos of the Katsura Imperial Villa, taken in 1953–54, were celebrated in both photography and architectural circles for identifying the precedents for Modernist design in historic Japanese dwellings. This photo was made in 1982, when Ishimoto returned to Katsura after it had undergone an extensive six year resoration. This was Ishimoto’s first time shooting in color at the villa and this photograph is a perfect example of the way that this allowed him to delve more deeply into the relationship between the exquisitely crafted interior spaces and the lush and elegantly composed gardens.
