Description

From dense banks of mist, several roofs of a Shintō shrine emerge, clearly identifiable by the crossed chigi beams on the ridge and the curving eaves. Encircling railings and a broad staircase hint at the complex without fully revealing it, for the lower part of the buildings disappears completely into the haze.

Old pines frame the scene from both sides, their horizontally reaching branches pushing in front of the buildings. Their needle clusters, rendered in short, dense ink strokes, form the strongest contrast in an otherwise softly washed image. In the background stands a broad mountain ridge, its flanks appearing only as vertical hatching. Between the branches, the view repeatedly opens onto empty areas, which are what make the mist in the image perceptible at all.

The concealment of a sacred place by mist is, in Japanese painting, no mere expedient but a deliberate device: what is not fully visible retains its dignity. Signature and red seal appear at the lower left. Executed as a screen print, this hanging scroll is a quiet, dignified work.