Autumn in Ohara

Ohara, a wooded valley in the northern hills of Kyoto, is associated with the autumn foliage season and with the Tendai temple complex centered on Sanzen-in. Tokuriki frequently returned to the area for seasonal landscape prints, and this image treats Ohara in late autumn, when the maples turn red and orange against the evergreen cedars. The composition likely combines a foreground band of color-saturated maple foliage with a middle distance of thatched farmhouses or temple roofs and a rising backdrop of forested hills. Bokashi gradations along the hillside and sky give the scene atmospheric recession, while individual maple leaves are built up through several registered impressions of differently saturated reds. As a meisho-e of the Kyoto countryside, Autumn in Ohara fits within Tokuriki's lifelong preoccupation with the seasonal moods of his native region. Seasonal landscapes such as this formed a substantial portion of his output across more than seventy years of work.