Getting dark in Snow (Kani, Near Itabashi) — 雪に暮る（板橋附近 可児）

Getting dark in Snow (Kani, Near Itabashi) is a winter landscape woodblock print by Ishiwata Koitsu, a shin-hanga artist who specialized in atmospheric snowscapes and quiet evening scenes drawn from the suburban and rural fringes of Showa-era Japan. The composition captures the moment when dusk settles over a snow-covered road near Itabashi, with the village of Kani softened beneath a fresh fall of snow. Bare trees stand against a darkening sky, while the muffled hush of accumulated snow on rooftops and roadside is conveyed through delicately graded color blocks rather than line. Koitsu builds the scene around tonal contrast: deep indigo and slate blues in the sky, warm grays in the shadowed snow, and a single point of lamplight or open door that anchors the eye and suggests human presence in an otherwise still landscape. This print belongs to the broader shin-hanga (new prints) movement that emerged in early twentieth-century Japan, in which publishers and artists revived the collaborative ukiyo-e workshop system to produce hand-printed works for collectors at home and abroad. Ishiwata Koitsu worked closely with the Doi Hangaten publisher in Tokyo, whose program of landscape series helped define the late shin-hanga style and brought his quiet evening views to a wider audience. The Doi Hangaten publisher commissioned and distributed many of Koitsu's snow and twilight prints, including landscapes set in the outskirts of greater Tokyo such as Itabashi. The print is documented through the ukiyo-e.org aggregate image database, which references it under its Japanese title and its Toko-no series number. The image is held in the public archive at ukiyo-e.org and reflects the muted color palette and quiet mood that distinguish Ishiwata Koitsu's winter landscapes within shin-hanga.