The Kasuga Shrine in Nara (Nara Kasuga jinja), from the series Souvenirs of Travel II (Tabi miyage dai nishû)

Kawase Hasui's depiction of the Kasuga Shrine in Nara (Nara Kasuga jinja), from the Souvenirs of Travel II series (Tabi miyage dai nishū), shows the famous approach to Kasuga Taisha through its ancient cryptomeria forest. The shrine, founded in 768 at the base of Mount Mikasa, is among the primary Shinto sites of the Nara basin, and its forest setting distinguishes it from the more open or garden-surrounded shrine landscapes of other Hasui subjects. Hundreds of stone lanterns line the approach paths; within the inner precincts, bronze lanterns hang in long rows beneath the covered corridors. Hasui's composition would draw on the interplay between the vertical trunks of the old-growth cryptomeria, the low horizontal lines of the lanterns, and the vermilion structural color of the shrine buildings at the path's end. Printed by Watanabe Shōzaburō with careful gradation of the forest interior's filtered light, the image belongs to the most accomplished phase of the shin-hanga movement's landscape production.