Kitayama

Kitayama, the northern mountain district of Kyoto, is known for its cedar forests, rural temples, and the cooler, wetter climate that distinguishes it from the city center. This mokuhanga print takes the district as its starting point, translating its particular atmosphere into abstract fields of color. The Kitayama cedars, cultivated for centuries to produce the straight, polished logs used in traditional architecture, create dense vertical forests that filter light into narrow shafts. Brayer likely responds to this quality of interrupted, softened light, rendering the mountain district as a study in vertical forms and green-toned luminosity. The title anchors the abstraction in a real place, inviting viewers to read the color fields as distillations of a specific terrain rather than purely formal exercises.