Evening Snow at Terajima

Terajima, a district in the Sumida River area of eastern Tokyo, appears here under a quiet evening snowfall. The print likely depicts low residential architecture — wooden houses and garden walls — with snow settling on rooflines and branches while the light fades to indigo. Hasui was drawn to Terajima and the surrounding Musashino plain as subjects during the early 1920s, finding in its then-semirural character a quieter alternative to the dense urban scenes of central Tokyo. The shin-hanga process allowed for subtle modulation of white — layered white pigment on washi, sometimes with blind embossing for tactile depth — to distinguish fresh snow from the overcast sky behind it.