KOHARU (Early Spring)

"Koharu" — early spring or "little spring," referring to the brief warm spell in late autumn that mimics spring's quality — is rendered in a composition that conveys the particular melancholy of this borrowed season: the warmth pleasant but temporary, the spring-like quality bittersweet because it belongs properly to a different point in the year. Nishijima's treatment of this atmospheric condition in the context of traditional architecture produces a print of unusual emotional complexity, the familiar streetscape given a note of transience by the seasonal theme.