Hanga
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 — Japanese Woodblock print

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

Medium:
Woodblock print
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

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.