
Evening Snow at Sanjûgen Canal (Sanjûgenbori no bosetsu), from the unfinished series Twelve Months of Tokyo (Tôkyô jûnikagetsu), Taishô period, dated 1920
by Kawase Hasui
- Series:
- Twelve Months of Tokyo
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Harvard Art Museum
- Image courtesy of
- Harvard Art Museum
Description
From the unfinished series Twelve Months of Tokyo, this 1920 Taishô-period print depicts the Sanjûgen Canal in Tokyo under falling evening snow. Hasui frames the narrow waterway between embankments dusted white, likely with bare-branched trees and dim lantern light reflecting on the dark water below. The bosetsu (evening snow) subject allowed printmakers to contrast warm interior lamplight against blue-grey atmospheric washes built up through careful bokashi gradation. As an early entry in what would become a landmark series, the composition shows Hasui developing the meisho-e landscape tradition for a modern Tokyo audience, rendering a working urban canal with the same poetic attention traditionally reserved for celebrated scenic sites.
More Prints by Kawase Hasui
More Snow Scenes Prints

Fair Weather After Snow at Yamato Bridge, Kyoto (Yamato bashi no yukibare), Taishô period, dated 1924
Woodblock print

The Compound of the Tenman Shrine at Kameido in the Snow (Kameido Tenmangu keidai no yuki), from the series "Famous Places in the Eastern Capital (Toto meisho)"
c. 1832/38
Color woodblock print; oban

Miyajima in Snow (Yuki no Miyajima)
Yuki no Miyajima
1929
Color woodblock print; oban

Evening Snow at Shiha Park, Tokyo
1932
Woodblock print
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Evening Snow at Sanjûgen Canal (Sanjûgenbori no bosetsu), from the unfinished series Twelve Months of Tokyo (Tôkyô jûnikagetsu), Taishô period, dated 1920 was created by Kawase Hasui (川瀬巴水).
Yes — Evening Snow at Sanjûgen Canal (Sanjûgenbori no bosetsu), from the unfinished series Twelve Months of Tokyo (Tôkyô jûnikagetsu), Taishô period, dated 1920 is part of the Twelve Months of Tokyo series by Kawase Hasui.
Evening Snow at Sanjûgen Canal (Sanjûgenbori no bosetsu), from the unfinished series Twelve Months of Tokyo (Tôkyô jûnikagetsu), Taishô period, dated 1920 depicts snow scenes.



