Daibutsuden, Todai-ji, Nara

Though he began each print with a drawing, Hiratsuka Un’ichi also changed his designs while he was carving, as if drawing with his knife. He is regarded as the best-trained block carver in the creative print movement, and in 1970 he became the first printmaker to receive the Order of Cultural Merit from the Japanese government. Hiratsuka’s subjects vary greatly but include Buddhist images, monuments, and portraits of friends and family members. Large pictures of temples made during his most energetic period of production in the 1960s, such as this print, rank among his best-known works.