Key value factors: Edition order (first Watanabe/Doi printing vs. posthumous reprints) is crucial. Snow scenes, night views, and bijin-ga typically command premiums. Publisher seals and artist signatures authenticate first editions.
Mount Hiei, rendered here in Japanese as 比叡, rises at the northeastern boundary between Kyoto and Shiga Prefecture, a mountain laden with religious and cultural significance as the seat of the Tendai Buddhist headquarters at Enryaku-ji. Nishiyama's woodblock print portrays the mountain's broad, forested slopes, which have been a defining element of the Kyoto skyline for over a millennium. The composition captures the mountain from a distance sufficient to show its full profile against the sky, with the dense forest cover rendered as a unified mass of deep greens. Rather than depicting the famous temple complex hidden within the trees, Nishiyama focuses on the mountain as a natural form, allowing its imposing presence to speak without architectural embellishment.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Mt Hiei — 比叡 was created by Nishiyama Hideo (西山英雄).
Mt Hiei — 比叡 depicts landscapes, temples & shrines, and mountains.
