Fire festival

For a Kyoto-based artist, a print titled "Fire festival" most plausibly depicts either the Kurama no Hi-matsuri held each October at Yuki-jinja in the northern hills, in which villagers carry massive pine-resin torches up the mountain road, or one of the Gozan no Okuribi bonfires lit on the surrounding peaks on August 16 to send the spirits of the dead back at the close of Obon. Both subjects translate well into mokuhanga: the deep nocturnal ground (printed with heavy [sumi](/glossary/sumi) and indigo) absorbs most of the sheet, while the flames themselves are picked out in vermilion, orange, and yellow inks, often with [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations to suggest the rising heat. Figures, when present, read as silhouetted shapes against the firelight rather than as portraits. The print belongs to Ido's festival cycle within the wider Kyoto archive, where matsuri imagery — Gion, Aoi, Jidai, the fire festivals — provides the populated, narrative counterpoint to his unpeopled views of temples and gardens.