Untitled
by Kawase Hasui
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Source:
- Watanabe Print
- Image courtesy of
- Watanabe Print
Description
A [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) landscape print by Kawase Hasui, likely depicting a snow-covered Japanese scene characteristic of his winter compositions. Hasui frequently returned to temples, shrines, and rural villages transformed by snowfall, rendering the quiet weight of accumulated snow through subtle [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations across sky and ground planes. The composition typically employs balanced arrangements of architectural or natural elements — gabled rooftops, bare branches, or stone lanterns — against a muted [washi](/glossary/washi) ground. Printed by Watanabe Shōzaburō's workshop, such prints use multiple woodblocks to achieve the soft tonal transitions that define Hasui's atmospheric approach. The [oban](/glossary/oban) format provides ample space for the careful interplay of light and shadow central to his seasonal landscapes, capturing the stillness of winter in a manner that drew on Hiroshige's Edo-period precedents while reflecting the technical refinements of early twentieth-century shin-hanga production.

![[abstract composition with diagonal woodgrain] by Gen Yamaguchi](https://1.api.artsmia.org/800/135949.jpg)