Tsutanuma Pond in Mutsu

The Tsutanuma ponds in Mutsu Province (present-day Aomori Prefecture) are a cluster of small forest lakes formed within volcanic terrain, set beneath old-growth beech forest listed within Towada-Hachimantai National Park. Hasui's Pond designation for this work may signal a compositional emphasis on the water surface itself—its depth, transparency, and capacity to mirror the tree canopy—rather than the broader marsh setting. The still water offers a doubled composition in which the sky, filtered through beech foliage, appears both above and below the image's implied horizon. In woodblock printing, achieving convincing water reflection requires precise color registration and carefully graded bokashi, with the printer laying down successive passes so the reflected image appears slightly darker and more muted than its source. The absence of wind-created surface disturbance in such compositions produces a bilateral symmetry that Hasui activates through the asymmetrical placement of trunks and branches, preventing the image from becoming static.