Mt.Izumo

"Mt. Izumo" returns Hiratsuka Un'ichi to the landscape of his birth: he was born in Matsue in Shimane Prefecture, the historical Izumo region. The print renders one of the conical or ridged peaks visible from the Matsue plain, treated in the artist's reductive monochrome manner—mountain mass as black silhouette, sky as unprinted [washi](/glossary/washi), with foreground trees or rooflines indicated through a few carved lines. Mountain subjects occupy a substantial place in his catalogue alongside his prints of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, including the Izumo Taisha shrine that gives the region its religious identity. Compared to the color mountain prints of Hiroshi Yoshida, Hiratsuka's approach removes atmospheric perspective entirely, relying on the cut edge of the block to define silhouette. Designed, carved, and printed by the artist himself, the work stands within his lifelong topographical project—documenting the Japanese landscape through the [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) method he helped found.