Snow-Storm at Tsukishima

This print depicts Tsukishima, the reclaimed island in Tokyo Bay that retained much of its Meiji-era townscape into the twentieth century. Hasui likely rendered the narrow canal-front streets during a heavy snowfall, with wooden merchant buildings and lanterns half-obscured by driving flakes. Snow scenes were among Hasui's most technically demanding works: the printer had to lay down multiple pale gradations of blue and grey through careful bokashi blending before adding the white overprinting that suggests falling snow. The densely built streetscape of Tsukishima provided a contrast of human warmth against wintry stillness, a compositional tension Hasui returned to throughout his career. Published by Watanabe Shozaburo, the print would have been produced on hosho-grade washi using water-based pigments pressed by baren, the finished sheet carrying the characteristic soft texture of shin-hanga paper.