Evening snow at Sanjukkenbori

This print depicts the Sanjukkenbori canal district of Tokyo in twilight snowfall, a subject Hasui returned to across multiple editions throughout his career. The canal's still surface mirrors a darkening sky while accumulated snow softens the geometric lines of embankments and rooftops along the bank. Hasui's publisher Watanabe Shôzaburô produced multiple impressions of closely related Sanjukkenbori compositions, and subtle differences in pigment and bokashi gradation between impressions reflect the collaborative nature of shin-hanga production, in which the artist's design passed through specialist carvers and printers on washi paper. The horizontal format of a canal view invited the kind of layered atmospheric recession that distinguished Hasui's urban landscapes.