Matsumoto

Matsumoto — the castle city in the Nagano mountains, famous for its beautifully preserved sixteenth-century castle whose black and white exterior earned it the name "Crow Castle" — is depicted here in one of Yoshida's Japanese architectural subjects. The castle's reflection in its moat, the surrounding mountains, and the city's traditional streetscape gave Yoshida rich compositional material of the kind that drew him to Japanese historic architecture throughout his career. His treatment likely captures the castle in seasonal context, the mountains and surrounding landscape providing the natural setting that gives the composition its full pictorial depth.