Azuma Gorge

Azuma Gorge, carved by the Tsuchiyu River through volcanic terrain in Fukushima Prefecture, offered Hasui dramatic topography quite different from the flat coastal or urban subjects that appear elsewhere in his oeuvre. The gorge's steep walls of volcanic rock, overhanging in places and draped with deciduous vegetation, create a vertical composition that challenges the conventional horizontal landscape format. Hasui likely depicted the gorge from one of the wooden footbridges that cross the river at intervals, looking upstream or downstream into the receding canyon walls. The deep shadows of the gorge interior required the carver and printer to exploit the contrast between areas of dense key-block work and the luminous openings of sky or water visible between the cliffs, a technical challenge that the Watanabe workshop handled with precision.