$500–$5,000. Snow and night scenes tend to command premium prices for this artist. Key value factors: Ito Takashi's prints published by Doi Hangaten are the most sought after. Night scenes and snow views command premiums.
Snow falls over the Akabane district of Tokyo as a ferry crosses the waterway in this oban woodblock print. Ito Takashi combines two of his recurring subjects, river ferries and snowscapes, into a single composition that layers white precipitation over dark water. The ferry and its passengers, reduced to simplified shapes by distance and weather, move through a landscape stripped of sharp detail by the falling snow. Multiple printing passes build the atmospheric density, with the snow functioning both as subject and as a formal device that softens edges and compresses the tonal range. Akabane, in Tokyo's northern reaches along the Arakawa River, provided Ito with a vantage point where urban and semi-rural elements mingled at the city's edge, a transitional landscape ideally suited to his interest in weather as a transforming force.
Woodblock print
c. 1832/38
Color woodblock print; oban
Yuki no Miyajima
1929
Color woodblock print; oban
1932
Woodblock print
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Ferry in Snow at Akabane, Tokyo was created by Ito Takashi (伊東孝).
Ferry in Snow at Akabane, Tokyo depicts snow scenes and boats & ships, set at Tokyo.
