Taisho Pond, Kamikochi Tableland — 上高地渓谷

This woodblock print of Taisho Pond at Kamikochi (上高地渓谷) belongs to Hasui's sustained engagement with the alpine valley in the Northern Japanese Alps of Nagano Prefecture. The pond, dammed by volcanic activity in 1915, and its standing drowned trees became visual shorthand for Kamikochi across both photography and printmaking in the Taisho and Showa periods. Hasui's multiple treatments of the subject suggest its commercial popularity and his own revisiting of the site. In printing terms, the still pond surface required precise registration of reflection gradations — a technically demanding passage where subtle bokashi differences between editions are most apparent. The surrounding Hotaka massif, Japan's third highest peak complex, typically anchors the upper composition with a range of cold violets and grays rendered through layered mineral pigment.