Mt Daimonji

Daimonji-yama rises east of Kyoto and is best known for the giant character 大 cut into its slope, lit each August during the Gozan no Okuribi. This print likely renders the mountain as a distant silhouette across a foreground of city rooftops, the Kamo River, or a stand of pines, in the manner standard to shin-hanga meisho views. The undulating profile of the mountain lends itself to a single broad block printed with a bokashi gradation, the upper edge fading toward the sky and the base meeting a darker mid-ground. Mountain backdrops of this kind tested the printer's ability to register a soft tonal field without banding. Nomura returned to Daimonji at least twice in his recorded output, and the subject sits within the wider shin-hanga interest in Kyoto's circumscribed landmarks -- the same eastern hills that earlier ukiyo-e meisho-e had codified as the city's defining backdrop.