Morning at Mount Tsurugi (Tsurugizan no asa), from the series Twelve Prints of the Japan Alps (Nihon Arupusu jūni dai no uchi), 1926

Color woodblock print

15 5/8 x 10 3/4 inches (39.7 x 27.3 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Samuel S. White 3rd and Vera White Collection, 1967

1967-30-216

This scene of Mount Tsurugi comes directly from Yoshida Hiroshi’s experience in the Japanese Alps. Yoshida would sketch scenes during his summertime mountain-climbing excursions and make prints from these sketches during the fall and winter months. This print demonstrates his interest in showing the European notion of the sublime, seen in the grand qualities with which Hiroshi has imbued the landscape: architectural clouds, monumentalized nature, and saturated colors that blend seamlessly together.

Travis Mager