Snow at Funabori

Funabori, a canal district in eastern Tokyo's Edogawa Ward, was among the subjects Hasui documented as part of his systematic coverage of Tokyo's neighborhoods. This woodblock print, the primary or earliest impression of the Funabori snow composition, depicts the district's waterways and wooden architecture under snowfall. Snow scenes were among the most technically demanding shin-hanga subjects: achieving the luminosity of snow required careful management of the unprinted washi ground, with surrounding tones in sky and water built up through multiple overprinted color blocks. The composition likely balances a horizontal canal band against vertical architectural elements, a structure common to Hasui's urban snow subjects. Published by Watanabe Shozaburo, this design would have been carved, printed, and distributed as part of the steady output of landscape subjects that defined the shin-hanga movement's core market in the 1920s through 1940s.