Clearing after a Snowfall at the Sekiyado (Sekiyado no yukibare)

Date:: 1946
Medium:: Color woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Publisher:

Edition:

Published by Watanabe Shozaburo

Source:

Typical Price

Snow scenes represent Hasui's most valuable and technically innovative subject category — he developed specialized carving techniques specifically for depicting falling snow. These subjects carry a consistent 30–50% premium over comparable non-snow designs. Evening Snow at Kambara (a landmark design) achieved $7,200 at Tokyo auction (2024) for a Taisho-era impression. Pine Trees After Snow (first/limited edition) sold for $4,300 at Artelino (2021). Winter Moon over Toyama Moor, combining snow and night effects, reached $3,600 (2022). Postwar lifetime editions (1946–1957) bearing the small 6mm J-seal represent authentic lifetime impressions but from the artist's final decade.

Pre-war lifetime edition (Watanabe seal): $2,000–$6,500
Postwar lifetime edition (J-seal): $800–$2,500
Posthumous/Heisei edition: $300–$800

Description

Clearing after a Snowfall at Sekiyado, published in 1946, depicts the castle town of Sekiyado at the confluence of the Tone River and the Edo River in Chiba Prefecture — a post-station town whose position at one of the Kanto plain's most important river crossings gave it strategic and commercial significance — under the clear sky following snowfall. The yukibare (clearing after snow) subject here brings the familiar compositional formula of white-blanketed riverfront and brilliant post-storm sky to one of the lower Kanto's historic river confluence points. The 1946 date gives this quiet winter subject a peacetime resurgence quality.