Autumn Foliage at Hakkodasan

Hakkodasan — the volcanic mountain group in Aomori Prefecture in northern Honshu, site of Japan's most catastrophic military cold-weather disaster in 1902 — transforms in this 1929 print into a landscape of autumnal splendor. The peak's beech forests ignite each October into the deep reds, oranges, and yellows of koyo, or autumn foliage, and Yoshida captures this seasonal transformation with the layered pigment depth that woodblock printing can achieve when handled with his level of craft. The cooler light of northern Japan gives the autumn colors a particular clarity and saturation that he renders with restrained but precise color selection.