Lake Kawaguchi- watercolour

The 'watercolour' designation in this title points to a preparatory study (gansaku) rendered in watercolor that Hasui made on site before a planned woodblock edition, or possibly a finished watercolor mistakenly catalogued alongside the print group. Hasui trained in Western watercolor technique in addition to traditional Japanese methods, and his travel sketches served as the compositional foundation for all his published woodblock designs. The work likely captures Lake Kawaguchi with Mt. Fuji at the far shoreline, the water surface rendered in layered transparent washes. If subsequently issued as a woodblock print, Watanabe's carvers and printers would have translated the wash-like gradations into graduated bokashi across multiple blocks, approximating the fluid, soft-edged quality of the original medium. The pairing of direct watercolor observation with woodblock translation was a characteristic working method in the shin-hanga movement, preserving the spontaneous light effects of plein-air sketching within the structured craft of block printing.