On the Way to Kumano

This 2015 print depicts the Kumano Kodo, the network of ancient pilgrimage routes through the Kii Peninsula in Wakayama Prefecture that has been a sacred travel corridor since the tenth century. The path to Kumano passes through dense forested mountain terrain — cedar forests, river valleys, stone-paved trails — and the subject positions Moilanen within the meisho-e tradition of travel and landscape prints while also invoking pilgrimage as spiritual practice. Mokuhanga suits this subject particularly well: the technique's natural gradations through bokashi can render the layered green depths of ancient forest, and the washi substrate's organic texture complements imagery of old stone paths. A Finnish artist engaging with Japan's oldest sacred pilgrimage routes creates an implicit reflection on travel, landscape, and the relationship between terrain and spiritual experience — themes that resonate between Nordic forest culture and Japanese mountain asceticism.