Snow Garden

This Snow Garden, issued under the Saru imprint rather than Hangaten, shows Williams returning to one of his most sustained subjects: a Japanese garden under fresh snowfall. The print likely depicts either his own garden outside Kyoto or a temple garden in the city, with the unprinted white of the washi reading as accumulated snow on stones, pruned shrubs, and roof tiles, while the key block supplies the dark accents of bare branches, lantern silhouettes, and path edges. Two publishers issuing similarly titled prints reflects Williams's practice of revisiting compositions across editions and decades, with each version distinct in its block carving, registration, and color choices. The mokuhanga technique—water-based pigments worked into damp washi with a baren—gives snow scenes a softness unavailable to oil-based printing, the pigment sinking into rather than sitting on the paper. Within his body of work, garden subjects sit alongside the wider Hanase landscapes as the more intimate, cultivated counterpart to the rural valleys.