Trees

This second composition titled Trees represents Sasajima's habit of returning to the same subject across multiple prints, varying the angle, season, or textural treatment. Trees appear throughout his oeuvre as the natural counterpart to his Buddhist architectural subjects — the cryptomeria stands of temple precincts, the windbreak pines around rural shrines, the bare zelkova outside winter sanctuaries. Working in the sosaku-hanga tradition, Sasajima carved every block and pulled every impression himself, and his line carries the directness of a hand-carved cherry-wood matrix rather than the polished finish of prewar commercial woodblock production. The composition likely emphasizes silhouette over detail, with broad planes of color and selective bokashi gradations to model trunk and canopy. As a variant within a recurring subject, the print reflects Sasajima's working method: returning to the same motifs over years, refining the visual vocabulary through patient repetition rather than reaching for novel subjects.