Early spring breeze at Mount Hiei

Mount Hiei — the forested mountain that rises northeast of Kyoto, home to the great monastic complex of Enryakuji and one of the defining elements of the city's skyline — in early spring carries the particular quality of a season just arriving: bare branches beginning to soften with new growth, the last residual cold of winter still present in the air. Kotozuka's depiction of the mountain in its early spring atmosphere would deploy the delicate tonal gradations suited to this transitional seasonal state.