Boy among Withered Leaves

Against a brown background a boy in white appears, standing amid falling red and yellow leaves. Chihiro, while at the mountain cottage she had built in the Kurohime Highlands, which also served as her atelier, said that she saw “the end of autumn.” A sudden gust of wind sent a blanket of leaves into the air, which made the room unbelievably bright, creating a brief storm of color that Chihiro found deeply moving. The viewer cannot help but wonder if the boy in this illustration is also witnessing the end of autumn. The technique used to represent the boy is called shiro-nuki, or white-out, where the whiteness of the paper remains and the surrounding areas are given color, creating the impression that the boy, along with the falling leaves, are bathed in light.