Rainy Night at Maekawa — 相州前川の雨

This impression of Rainy Night at Maekawa (相州前川の雨) records a night scene along the Maekawa River in Sagami Province. The composition draws on Hasui's characteristic approach to rain-at-night subjects: a darkened landscape rendered in graduated indigo and black, with rain indicated by parallel diagonal lines carved across the key block. Light sources — likely lanterns or light from nearby structures — create isolated warm passages that reflect in the wet ground or river surface, establishing visual counterpoint to the prevailing darkness. Differences in pigment saturation and paper quality between various impressions of this design reflect the shin-hanga practice of issuing multiple printings to meet collector demand, a process managed primarily by publisher Watanabe Shozaburo. Each impression thus represents a discrete moment in the production history of the design.