Umetaro Azechi, Mountain Seasons

Artist: Azechi Umetaro (1902–1999)
Title: Mountain of the Seasons (季節の山)
Medium: Woodblock print
Year: 1968
Edition: Limited edition (numbered 24/85)
Image size: approx. 50 × 38 cm
Paper size: approx. 55 × 45 cm
Condition: Very good vintage condition; light toning to margins consistent with age
Signed: Pencil signed, dated, and numbered by the artist

Notes:
A striking mid-career composition by Azechi Umetaro featuring one of his most recognizable subjects: the yamabito (mountain man), surrounded by a gathering of anthropomorphic mountain spirits beneath a glowing sun. Rather than depicting a specific landscape, Azechi presents the mountains as living presences, each endowed with its own quiet personality and expression.

By the late 1960s, Azechi had refined the visual language that made him one of Japan's most celebrated modern printmakers. Flattened forms, boldly carved textures, and a restrained palette of turquoise, charcoal black, soft gray, and warm ochre create an image that is at once playful, meditative, and unmistakably his own.

The title, Mountain of the Seasons, suggests the ever-changing character of the mountains throughout the year. The clustered mountain faces evoke shifting weather, passing time, and the intimate relationship between the mountaineer and the natural world. The solitary mountain man stands not as a conqueror of nature but as one participant within it—a recurring theme throughout Azechi's work.

Printed in a small edition of only 85 impressions, this is an excellent example from Azechi's mature period, when his symbolic mountain imagery had reached its fullest expression.