Yakumo Bridge at Nagata Shrine in Kobe (Kobe Nagata-jinja Yakumobashi), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen)"

Yakumo Bridge at Nagata Shrine in Kobe (Kobe Nagata-jinja Yakumobashi), from Kawase Hasui's Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen) of 1930, depicts the small Yakumo bridge in the precincts of Nagata Shrine in the western district of Kobe. Hasui treats the bridge and its surrounding stone and timber elements as a tightly composed view, with foliage curving above the structure and the calmer surface of the precinct water below. The print belongs to the period when publisher Watanabe Shozaburo's Tokyo workshop was producing carefully designed series of regional shrine and temple precincts as part of the larger [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) program. The carvers handled the lattice-like rendering of bridge railings and the layered foliage with precision, while printers used selective [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations to give the water and stone elements their characteristic atmospheric weight. Nagata Shrine had a long-standing connection with Kobe's history and with the broader regional cult of the deity Kotoshironushi, but Hasui's interest, as throughout his career, is the way light and space organize a familiar place rather than the narrative attached to it. The Art Institute of Chicago, which preserves this impression, treats the print as part of Hasui's mature shin-hanga production at the cusp of the 1930s. Together with companion prints in the Kansai Edition, the image extended the geographic and devotional scope of the shin-hanga landscape canon while continuing the close collaboration between artist, carver, and printer in Watanabe's workshop.