Himeji Castle

This mokuhanga depicts Himeji Castle, the seventeenth-century hilltop fortress in Hyogo Prefecture often called Shirasagi-jo, the White Heron Castle, for its tiered white plaster walls and curving gabled roofs. Morimura's treatment translates the castle's complex stacked tenshu and supporting yagura into the bold geometric vocabulary that defines his work, with the silhouette of the donjon set against blocks of seasonal color and a graphic patterning of stone walls and tiled eaves. Carved across multiple cherry blocks and printed by hand with a [baren](/glossary/baren) onto [washi](/glossary/washi), the design relies on flat planes of pigment and crisp registration rather than the graduated [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) of earlier [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) castle subjects. The print belongs to the strand of Morimura's oeuvre devoted to Japan's heritage architecture, complementing his many studies of Kyoto temples and Edo-period gates, and reflects the contemporary mokuhanga revival's interest in monumental buildings rendered through pattern, simplification, and a calm, contemplative palette.