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161 • The deep mountains of Yoshino, in with winter snows by the device of
Watanabe Shikô (1683-1755) the southern part of Yamato province, "elegant confusion." A now-lost tenth-
Mount Yoshino figured in Japanese legend as early as century screen on the theme of the
the era of Emperor Jinmu (sixth cen- Four Seasons bore the following poem
Early eighteenth century tury BC). Powerful temples such as by one of Japan's most beloved poets,
Pair of six-panel screens;
Kongóbuji oversaw the sanctity of the Ki no Tsurayuki (883 - 946):
ink, color, and gold on paper region, an essential component of the
Each 150 x 362 (59 x 14272) Kumano-Yoshino pilgrimage circuit, When white flakes of snow
Private Collection, Kyoto flutter thick and fast toward earth,
which, by the medieval period, was flowers indeed scatter
conceptualized as a pair of giant topo- before the gale sweeping down
graphical mándala. Rulers like Toyo- from fair Yoshino's mountains.
tomi Hideyoshi (1536 -1598), who (McCullough 1985, 87)
wished to lay ceremonial claim to the
land, led elaborate cherry-viewing The combination of hills, cherries,
processions to Yoshino (and had and spring mists "spelled" Yoshino to
these events depicted on polychrome literate viewers. Eleven rolling hill-
screens). Famous poets celebrated tops (the central peak shared by both
Yoshino's exuberant display of cherry
blossoms, which were often conflated
