Yonaki Matsu A

Yonaki Matsu A — 'Night-Crying Pine' — takes its title from a class of legendary aged pines associated in Japanese folklore with sounds heard at night, said to weep or cry under wind and weather. Several specific yonaki matsu are named in regional tradition, and the subject offers Namiki a tree with built-in narrative weight — a departure from the unnamed, generic trees of his numbered Tree Scene series. The composition likely isolates the pine, emphasizing a weathered, asymmetric silhouette consistent with the great age implied by the legend, against a [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi)-graduated background. Printed on [washi](/glossary/washi) using water-based pigments and the [baren](/glossary/baren), the image would build the dense needle clusters and the textured trunk through layered impressions from multiple blocks, each carved by Namiki himself in the [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) manner. The 'A' suffix indicates a colorway variant within a paired issue. The choice of a named, storied tree connects Namiki's contemporary practice to the older [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) tradition of depicting specific, culturally resonant places and natural monuments.