Yuzawa in Echigo Province — 越後 湯澤

Yuzawa (湯沢) in Echigo Province—present-day Niigata Prefecture—lies in the Uonuma region of the Japanese Alps, one of the snowiest inhabited areas in Japan. The town sits at the foot of the Naeba and Kagura mountains, and its heavy winter snowfall made it a natural subject for Hasui's documentation of Japan's snow country. The print likely depicts the town in deep winter, with traditional architecture under accumulated snow, the rooflines and streetscape softened by white. Yuzawa later became associated with Kawabata Yasunari's 1935 novel Yukiguni (Snow Country), though Hasui's visits to the area preceded that association. Such snow-country compositions draw on the atmospheric economy of his urban snow subjects, replacing city landmarks with rural architecture—a transition that allows the snow itself, rather than any specific building, to become the organizing element of the design.