昭和5年（1930）の早春、ローマで開催される日本美術展覧会のために神戸から旅立つ友人たちを見送ろうと、汽車が苦手な清方は、車で東海・畿内を旅しました。その途上、奈良の唐招提寺南大門前で見かけた白壁の民家の佇まいに画趣を感じて描いた作品です。建築物を画面に大きく配した作品は珍しく、生まれ育った東京とは異なる古都奈良の文化に触れた清方の感動が伝わります。この民家のほかにも、水門のある家や小さな祠、二月堂からの眺めなど、清方は奈良の風景や風物をスケッチ帳に描きとめています。

A House on the Road in Nara (1930)
color on paper; framed
66.1 x 87.2 cm
(First exhibited at the 2nd Prince Shōtoku Taishi Memorial Exhibition)

Since Kiyokata disliked train travel, in the spring of 1930, he drove through the Tokai area and the area around Kyoto to Kobe to see off friends who were traveling to Rome to attend an exhibition of Japanese art. During the trip, he painted this picturesque white-walled house, which he came across at the south gate of Tōshōdaiji Temple in Nara. Buildings were rarely the main focus of Kiyokata’s canvases, but this picture conveys the deep emotion he felt on coming into contact with the culture of ancient Nara, so different from his native Tokyo. In addition to this house, Kiyokata also drew Nara landscape and scenery in his sketch book, including a house with water gate to draw water from canal, small roadside shrines, and the view from Nigatsudō Hall at Tōdaiji.