Evening Snow at Edo River (Kure no yuki [Edogawa])

Date:: 1932
Medium:: Color woodblock print; oban
Format:: Oban
Publisher:: Watanabe Shozaburo
Edition:: Published by Watanabe Shozaburo
Source:: Art Institute of Chicago

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). Pre-war lifetime editions bearing the Watanabe copyright seal (A through G types, 1926–1944) are the most desirable.

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

Description

Evening Snow at Edo River, published in 1932, depicts the Edogawa — the lower Tone River's western outflow forming the Tokyo-Chiba boundary — under falling evening snow that softens the flat river banks and stills the wide, slow-moving water. The kure no yuki (dusk-into-snow) subject applied to the Edo River gives this 1932 composition a particular tonal quality: the last daylight combined with falling snow creates a pale, diffused atmosphere where river, snow, and sky tend toward the same soft gray-white palette. The Rivers & Lakes and bokashi tags indicate the composition's primary atmospheric register.