Cherry Blossoms at Night- Maruyama Park

One of several known compositions depicting the weeping cherry at Maruyama Park after nightfall, this print demonstrates Yoshikawa's iterative approach to a subject central to Kyoto's cultural identity. Each version in the series explores the yozakura scene from a different vantage point or with a different treatment of light and atmospheric depth, offering collectors and viewers related but distinct readings of the same landmark. The illuminated branches of the shidarezakura — the great weeping cherry planted by the horticulturist Kino Jiemon in the eighteenth century — cascade across the picture plane, while lantern light picks out individual blossom clusters against the night sky. The carver's work in rendering the fine filaments of drooping branches required exceptional precision, and the printer's management of pale pigments over dark ground printing presented technical challenges distinct from daytime landscape subjects.