Kozu, Osaka

Among the multiple extant impressions of this Kozu, Osaka composition, this example represents the technical standards maintained across the Watanabe Shôzaburô publishing operation. The shin-hanga process divided printmaking into specialized roles: Hasui provided the original watercolor design, specialist carvers (horishi) transferred the image to cherry-wood blocks, and specialist printers (surishi) pulled each impression by hand using a baren on dampened washi. The Kozu district of Osaka, centered on the ancient Kozu Shrine in what is now Chūō Ward, drew Hasui's attention to the quieter, more intimate aspects of urban Osaka—its lanes, canal banks, and shrine approaches rather than the grander commercial districts. The composition likely emphasizes horizontal registers of architecture, water, and sky, with graduated bokashi transitions unifying the pictorial space in the manner typical of Hasui's meisho-e subjects from this period.