Castle in Snow

Snow scenes were central to Hasui's reputation — his depictions of Japan under winter snowfall earned him the informal epithet 'Artist of Snow.' This print presents a Japanese castle keep (tenshu) surrounded by heavy snow, its white tile-capped rooflines and stone foundations rendered against a cold sky. The castle's formal horizontal divisions — stone base, plastered walls, tiered roofs — gave Hasui's carvers clear structural geometry to contrast with the irregular accumulation of snow on branches, rooftops, and ground. Multiple woodblocks were required to achieve the visual weight of the snow, with white areas preserved by unprinted washi paper while grey shadows were built through careful gradation printing. The subject may be Matsumoto, Hirosaki, or another castle of the Tohoku or Chubu regions known for heavy snowfall.