Torii In the snow at Nikko

A torii gate stands amid snowfall at the Nikko Toshogu complex, the Tokugawa mausoleum north of Tokyo. Snow-laden torii are a recurring motif in early Showa printmaking, and Koizumi's treatment likely uses the unprinted washi to suggest accumulated snow, with bokashi gradations describing the leaden sky and the snow-drifted ground. The torii itself would appear in flat vermillion or cinnabar against the muted winter palette. While Nikko falls outside the strict topographic frame of One Hundred Views of Great Tokyo, the destination held national religious significance and was a recurring subject across both shin-hanga and sosaku-hanga circles. As elsewhere, Koizumi cut and printed every block himself. The composition belongs to the broader category of yuki-no-kei — snow views — that links his work to Kawase Hasui and earlier landscape designers who used winter to test the woodblock's atmospheric range.