Fallen snow on Mt Rokkô

Fallen Snow on Mt Rokko depicts the mountain range that rises behind Kobe under a covering of snow, a subject that links Kawanishi to the long Japanese tradition of seasonal landscape (setsugekka) while remaining specific to his home topography. Mt Rokko forms the northern wall of the city, and Kawanishi returned to it repeatedly across the seasons. Snow scenes in [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) typically simplify the conventions of older snow imagery — the speckled gofun snowflakes of [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e), the careful kentō-registered [washi](/glossary/washi) reserves — into broader zones of flat white set against muted blues and greys. The artist self-carved the blocks and printed the impressions, accepting the slightly uneven surface as part of the medium's expressive range rather than a flaw to be hidden. Within Kawanishi's catalogue, Rokko prints function as the inland counterpart to his harbor scenes, documenting the mountain frame within which Kobe sits. The work participates in the early-Showa renewal of landscape printmaking carried out by sosaku-hanga artists working outside the publisher system.