Akan National Park — 国立阿寒

Akan National Park in eastern Hokkaido forms the subject of this meisho-e landscape, depicting one of Japan's most remote and geologically active regions. Lake Akan, ringed by birch and Ezo spruce forests with the cone of Mount Meakan rising in the background, offered Hasui a panoramic subject far removed from his more familiar urban and coastal themes. The still surface of the lake, characteristic of caldera lakes at low wind, would allow for a mirrored reflection composition—a device Hasui employed throughout his career to double the visual weight of mountain silhouettes. The northern latitude produces a particular quality of cool, diffuse light that distinguishes Hokkaido prints from his warmer Honshū subjects, and the bokashi transitions in the sky would be less saturated, leaning toward grey-blue rather than the warm ambers and pinks of his sunrise or sunset work. This appears to be the primary edition from which subsequent variants descend.