Cloudy Day in Mito: Small Version Print, Shôwa period, dated 1951

This 1951 small-version impression reissues Hasui's Mito composition in a reduced oban format, reflecting Watanabe Shozaburo's practice of issuing scaled-down editions for different market segments. Mito, the historic castle town of Ibaraki Prefecture and seat of the Mito Tokugawa domain, was known for Kairakuen garden and its plum orchards. Under an unbroken overcast sky, the composition likely depicts the city's streets or garden precincts rendered in subdued grays and earth tones. The absence of direct sunlight allowed Hasui to explore nuanced tonal gradations through bokashi across the sky block, the diffuse light producing an even illumination that reveals subtle distinctions in hue without dramatic contrast. Produced five years after the standard woodblock edition, this impression documents the postwar resumption of Watanabe's print program and Hasui's continued command of atmospheric landscape even within a diminished format.