Bell Tower, Mount Koya, from the series "Collection of Scenic Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition" (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen, Koyasan shoro)

Bell Tower, Mount Koya (Koyasan shoro) was issued in 1935 as part of Kawase Hasui's series Collection of Scenic Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen), now in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The print portrays a wooden belfry on Koyasan, the mountain monastic center founded by the Shingon Buddhist master Kukai in the early ninth century. Kawase Hasui sets the structure among tall cedars, using their dark trunks to frame the tower and giving the eye a path between trees toward the suspended bell. Soft greens and earth tones dominate the palette, with subtle gradation in the sky suggesting humid mountain air. The image is characteristic of the shin-hanga, or new prints, movement that Watanabe Shozaburo developed from the 1910s onward by pairing trained designers like Kawase Hasui with skilled carvers and printers in his Tokyo workshop. Watanabe Shozaburo's role as publisher shaped both the format of these regional series and the marketing channels through which they reached domestic collectors and international buyers, particularly in the United States. Koyasan was a popular pilgrimage and tourist site, and the bell tower offered Kawase Hasui a subject that combined religious significance with the compositional pleasures of a forested temple precinct. Rather than focusing on Koyasan's most famous halls, the artist selected this quieter motif, in keeping with his preference for atmospheric corners over emblematic monuments and his interest in the textures of weathered wood, stone foundations, and shaded forest paths.