Staircase J

A monochrome stone lithograph of a staircase, designated 'J' within Yamamoto's sequence of staircase studies — a motif central to his practice and threaded through the principal 'Light, Time, Silence' series as well as standalone works. The image likely depicts a wooden domestic stair viewed from below or at an oblique angle, with treads, risers, banister, and the void beneath rendered in graduated greys against deeper black shadows. Staircases function in Yamamoto's iconography as thresholds: they imply movement and inhabitation without depicting any figure, registering presence through use rather than appearance. The lithographic stone allows him to capture the soft, accumulated wear of polished wood — passages of mid-tone where surfaces catch light, denser blacks where dust and shadow gather. The lettered numbering ('J' rather than a numeral) suggests this print belongs to a parallel run distinct from the main 'Light, Time, Silence' sequence, perhaps grouping the staircase motifs as their own subject family within his wider oeuvre.