Ise Shima National Park

This print depicts a scene from Ise-Shima National Park in Mie prefecture, the region encompassing the Grand Shrines of Ise, the deeply indented ria coastline of the Shima peninsula, and the cultivated pearl-farming bays. Designated a national park in 1946, Ise-Shima entered the postwar shin-hanga repertoire as a landscape and pilgrimage subject. Nishiyama likely composes the scene around the inlets and small wooded islands of Ago or Matoya bays, or alternatively the cypress-shaded approaches to the Ise shrines, with foreground motifs anchoring a recession of water and headlands rendered through bokashi gradations. The mokuhanga is printed on washi, with the baren pressing successive color blocks to build the muted greens, blue-greys, and ochres typical of Setouchi-region palettes. Nishiyama's nihonga training underpins the painterly handling of foliage and atmosphere. The print belongs with his other national-park subjects (Yoshino-Kumano, Seto Inland Sea), forming a coherent group that maps the postwar national-park system through the inherited conventions of meisho-e landscape.