Shinkawa at Night (Yoru no Shinkawa), from the series "Twelve Scenes of Tokyo (Tokyo junidai)"

Shinkawa at Night is one of Kawase Hasui's earliest nocturnal compositions and a landmark work from the formative period of his career. Created in 1919 as part of his "Twelve Scenes of Tokyo" series published by Watanabe Shozaburo, the print depicts the Shinkawa canal district of Tokyo after dark, with the still waters of the canal reflecting the lights of warehouses and buildings along its banks. The scene is suffused with a deep blue tonality that evokes the quiet melancholy of an urban waterway at night, a mood quite different from the pastoral landscapes that would later dominate Hasui's output.

Shinkawa, located in what is now Tokyo's Chuo ward, was a commercial canal district lined with warehouses and merchant establishments during the Taisho period. By choosing this urban, working-class subject, Hasui demonstrated an early interest in documenting the full range of Tokyo's character, not just its famous temples and gardens. The "Twelve Scenes of Tokyo" series was one of his first major undertakings and helped establish his reputation as a leading figure in the emerging shin-hanga movement under the guidance of publisher Watanabe Shozaburo.

The technical achievement of this print is particularly notable given that it was produced early in Hasui's printmaking career. The deep nighttime blues required multiple careful printing passes to build up sufficient depth of color without becoming muddy or losing detail. The reflections on the water surface — a motif Hasui would return to throughout his career — are rendered with a subtlety that suggests both the stillness of the canal and the slight rippling caused by unseen currents. Shinkawa at Night stands as an important document of both Hasui's artistic development and a Tokyo neighborhood that would be transformed beyond recognition by the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, just four years after this print was created.