Details

“Hakuba San” captures the formidable summit of Mount Shirouma (Hakuba), one of Japan’s sacred alpine peaks in the Hida range, rendered here with a serene precision and emotional restraint that is unmistakably Hiroshi Yoshida’s own. The name “Hakuba” translates as “white horse,” a poetic evocation of purity and myth, and in Yoshida’s hands, the snowy flanks and jagged stone appear at once monumental and ephemeral—shaped by geological epochs and the fleeting moods of weather and light.

Published in 1926 as part of his celebrated Japanese Alps series, Yoshida's composition is as much about the sculptural forms of nature as it is about atmosphere. The layering of lavender shadows, soft blushes of sunlit rock, and the lingering veil of morning mist conjure a hush appropriate to the mountain’s spiritual resonance. The horizontal orientation emphasizes the expanse and undulation of the range, inviting the viewer into a highland world above the clouds, where stillness reigns.

Connoisseur's Note

Yoshida’s “Hakuba San” is an exemplar of Shin Hanga at its most refined: a synthesis of Western perspective and naturalistic modeling with the meticulous handcraft of Japanese woodblock technique. The presence of the early brown jizuri seal in the left margin marks this as an early impression directly overseen by the artist, adding considerable desirability for collectors who seek works bearing the closest proximity to Yoshida’s vision.

Notably, the print achieves a Wabi-Sabi sensibility despite its grandeur. The soft erosion of light across the granite ridges, the unspoken transience suggested by receding snowfields, and the haze that erases foreground and background into shared silence—all evoke an awareness of impermanence and sublimity. Yoshida’s mastery lies not in spectacle but in restraint: the mountain, monumental as it is, remains shrouded in dignity and stillness. For the connoisseur attuned to such subtleties, “Hakuba San” offers an enduring conversation with the natural and the eternal.