Omuro

Omuro — a district within the precincts of Ninna-ji Temple in Kyoto, famous for its late-blooming cherry trees, the Omuro cherries (omuro no sakura) among the last in the city to flower each spring — provides the setting for this circa-1940 print. The Omuro cherries, squat and ancient, bloom in mid-April after most of Kyoto's blossoms have already fallen, creating a final season of cherry viewing that Yoshida captured with a quietude appropriate to the closing of spring. The Ninna-ji precinct, with its five-story pagoda visible above the cherry canopy, offered him the combination of architectural and natural elements that his best compositions balanced with particular skill.