About Summer

"About Summer" suggests a quality of feeling rather than a specific scene — the particular atmospheric heaviness of Japanese summer, the way heat flattens color and slows movement, the retreating into shade and shadow that the season necessitates. Nishijima conveys this seasonal mood through a scene of traditional architecture at the height of summer: the deep shadows under wide eaves, the reduced activity in the midday heat, the colors bleached by strong sun. His ability to capture seasonal mood through architectural setting rather than human figures gives his landscapes their meditative depth.