The Inokashira Benten Shrine in Snow (Shato no yuki)

The Inokashira Benten Shrine in Snow, published in 1929, depicts the island shrine at the center of Inokashira Pond in the Musashino district of western Tokyo — its torii gate and small hall surrounded by snow-covered pond ice, the wooded banks white and still in winter silence. Inokashira Park, developed in the Meiji period as one of Tokyo's first public parks, had long been celebrated for cherry blossoms, but Hasui's composition reveals its winter face: the snow-draped shrine, the frozen or near-frozen pond, the bare zelkova trees forming a filigree of dark branches against a white sky. The oban format and bokashi sky give the composition a contemplative spaciousness.