Gassan (Moon Mountain)

Gassan is the tallest of the Three Mountains of Dewa (Dewa Sanzan) in Yamagata Prefecture, a center of Shugendō ascetic practice for over a thousand years and the site of Gassan Shrine at its 1,984-meter summit. The name itself means 'moon mountain,' and the print likely pairs the sacred peak with a moonlit night sky — a conjunction that aligns the literal landscape with its toponym. Morimura's treatment of mountains tends toward layered silhouettes in graduated indigo and slate, achieved through successive over-printings on [washi](/glossary/washi) rather than gradient [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) alone. A pale disc of moon, often left as a reserved circle of unprinted paper, would anchor the composition and provide a luminous focal point against the surrounding tonal mass. The subject extends his sustained interest in places of religious significance and reflects his willingness to depict sacred mountains alongside the temples and shrines that frequently appear in his oeuvre. Cut and printed by the artist in the contemporary mokuhanga tradition, the image embeds a place name's poetic resonance directly into its visual structure.