Twelve Months of Tokyo: Evening Snow at Sanjukken Canal (Tokyo junikagetsu: Sanjugenbori no bosetsu)
by Kawase Hasui
- Series:
- Twelve Months of Tokyo
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Scholten Japanese Art
- Image courtesy of
by Kawase Hasui
This print from the Tokyo junikagetsu (Twelve Months of Tokyo) series depicts Sanjugenbori Canal in the Tsukishima area of Kōtō Ward under evening snowfall—a subject type that exemplifies Hasui's most celebrated compositional approach, transforming quiet urban waterways through winter precipitation. Sanjugenbori was a narrow canal edged by low timber merchant buildings, stone embankments, and occasional moored vessels. Under falling snow, the canal surface darkens while white accumulation on rooftops and embankment edges creates a staccato rhythm of pale against shadow. Hasui typically depicted such scenes from a low, near-water viewpoint, extending the canal diagonally into the picture plane while falling snow, rendered as white speckled dropout left in the printing blocks, creates a soft visual field over the entire composition. The blue-grey twilight palette transitions from deep indigo overhead to a paler reflection on the water below, achieved through carefully graded bokashi in the sky area—one of the technically demanding passages in shin-hanga snow printing.
Woodblock print
c. 1832/38
Color woodblock print; oban
Yuki no Miyajima
1929
Color woodblock print; oban
1932
Woodblock print
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Twelve Months of Tokyo: Evening Snow at Sanjukken Canal (Tokyo junikagetsu: Sanjugenbori no bosetsu) was created by Kawase Hasui (川瀬巴水).
Yes — Twelve Months of Tokyo: Evening Snow at Sanjukken Canal (Tokyo junikagetsu: Sanjugenbori no bosetsu) is part of the Twelve Months of Tokyo series by Kawase Hasui.
Twelve Months of Tokyo: Evening Snow at Sanjukken Canal (Tokyo junikagetsu: Sanjugenbori no bosetsu) depicts snow scenes.
