Postcard folder 2

The second in this pair of postcard folders continues the format common to Japanese tourist print publishing of the 1920s and 1930s, gathering small-scale landscape or architectural compositions into a portable, giftable package. Hasui's postcard-format prints typically reproduced the same compositional principles as his larger works—foreground framing elements, gradated skies, atmospheric weather conditions—compressed into a smaller picture field. The folded format itself was a distinctive Japanese publishing convention without direct Western equivalent, creating an artifact that functions simultaneously as souvenir, correspondence medium, and miniature print collection. Publisher Watanabe Shozaburo and other shin-hanga publishers used postcard sets to broaden the commercial reach of woodblock printmaking beyond the fine art collector market, distributing these objects through travel retail networks across Japan and internationally.