Twelve Scenes of Tokyo: Evening Snow at Terajima Village (Tokyo Junikkei: Kure no yuki Terajima mura)

This print from Tokyo junikkei (Twelve Scenes of Tokyo) depicts Terajima mura (Terajima Village) in what is now Sumida Ward, a semi-rural district on the northeastern edge of the Edo-era city that retained market gardens, small temples, and low residential buildings into the Taisho period. The evening snowfall setting activates Hasui's characteristic treatment of nocturnal winter scenes: a deep blue-black sky rendered with flat color passes and fine white dropout for falling snow, pale accumulation on thatched and tiled rooftops, and a single warm light source—a lantern or interior window glow—that creates the dramatic chiaroscuro Hasui favored in his nighttime prints. The village setting distinguishes this composition from Hasui's urban canal snow subjects, emphasizing agricultural enclosure and residential quiet rather than the reflected light of city waterways. The title's use of kure (evening dark) in the Japanese subtitle underscores the specific quality of fading light that motivated Hasui's choice of this time of day.