Landscape of Mount Kōya

This work originally belonged to Kongōzanmai-in Temple on Mount Kōya in Wakayama prefecture and appears to have been used in the esoteric Buddhist initiation ceremony, kanjō. This large pair of folding screens captures Kongōbu-ji, the head Shingon temple on Mount Kōya, starting with the main gate at the far left and ending with Oku-no-in, the mausoleum for the founder of the Shingon sect, Kūkai (774–835). Central to the overall composition are the grounds of Kongōzanmai-in in the upper half of panels five and six of the right screen.
Although the transition of the four seasons can be seen here, the seasonal changes have been reversed from the order traditionally found in Japanese paintings, which are usually viewed from right to left. The reason for this reversal may have been due to the importance placed on the geographical relationship of the buildings to the scenery.
This resplendent set of screens has generally been dated to around the first half of the fourteenth century, which marked the golden age of Kongōsanmai-in. The detailed rendering of the temple buildings, which offers one of the only remaining glimpses of Mount Kōya at the end of the Kamakura period, together with the picturesque depiction of the four seasons, make this work an outstanding example of yamato-e, or classical Japanese painting. The modern Japanese artist Dōmoto Inshō (1891–1975) formerly owned these screens.