The Kasuga Shrine in Nara (Nara Kasuga jinja), from the series Collected Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fûkei shû II Kansai hen)

Kawase Hasui's view of the Kasuga Shrine in Nara (Nara Kasuga jinja), published in the series Collected Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fūkei shū II Kansai hen), depicts the approach to one of Japan's oldest Shinto shrines, established in 768. Kasuga Taisha is distinguished by hundreds of stone lanterns lining its wooded pathways and bronze lanterns suspended within the covered corridors of the inner shrine buildings. Hasui's composition for this Kansai series edition likely emphasizes the lantern-lined avenue through ancient cryptomeria forest, with canopy light filtering through old-growth foliage. The sacred deer that roam freely through Nara's shrine precincts may appear as incidental figures in the foreground. The Kansai Edition situates Nara alongside Kyoto and Osaka as representative sites of western Japanese cultural heritage, and Hasui's treatment would balance the primeval forest setting against the shrine's refined architectural color—the vermilion lacquer of the kasuga-zukuri structures asserting warmth against the cool greens of the surrounding cryptomeria.