The Lijang River in the evening

The Lijiang River in Guangxi, China, is known for its karst peaks rising from the water—a subject that invites the kind of layered atmospheric treatment central to Okamoto's landscape practice. The evening setting allows for extended use of [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi), the gradient inking technique in which color is graduated from saturated to pale across the printing block, particularly suited to skies, water surfaces, and the modeling of distant mountains in low light. The composition likely arranges the karst formations in receding planes, with reflections in the river surface creating a vertical mirroring that doubles the visual density of the image. Okamoto's selection of a Chinese rather than Japanese subject extends the [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) (famous places) tradition outward, applying mokuhanga sensibility to a landscape long beloved by Chinese ink painters. The evening light favors a cool palette—indigo, grey, muted ocher—and demands careful tonal control across the multiple blocks required to build atmospheric depth.