Autumn leaves of Korankei Gorge

Korankei, a gorge along the Tomoe River in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, is recognized for its momiji — roughly four thousand Japanese maple trees planted from the seventeenth century onward by priests of the Kojakuji temple. By November the canopy turns red, orange, and yellow, making Korankei one of central Japan's principal autumn destinations. Kitaoka's print engages the koyo tradition that runs from classical poetry through Edo-period landscape prints to the shin-hanga and sosaku-hanga generations. Mokuhanga handles dense foliage through layered impressions of separately carved color blocks, with bokashi gradation softening transitions between hues; firm key-block contours of trunks and branches anchor the composition against the variegated leaves. The print belongs to Kitaoka's later landscape practice, in which earlier social-realist subjects gave way to a more contemplative interest in the seasonal Japanese countryside, treated with the technical economy he had developed across decades of self-printed work.