Waseda Dye factory

The Waseda district in northwest Tokyo housed dyeing workshops and small factories along the Kanda River, where dyed cloth was traditionally rinsed in the running water and stretched on poles to dry. Koizumi's print likely depicts the industrial buildings and water-rinsing activity that distinguished the area, a subject within One Hundred Views of Great Tokyo that documents working districts alongside the series' civic and religious landmarks. The composition would render factory architecture, drying cloth, or riverside rinsing through flat color planes with sharp keyblock outlines, characteristic of Koizumi's mokuhanga method. As with the rest of the Hyakkei series, the artist designed, carved, and printed every block himself between 1928 and 1940, fulfilling sosaku-hanga's principle of single-author production. The dye factory subject reflects the documentary breadth of the series: Koizumi recorded not only Tokyo's monuments and shrines but also the workshops and labor that constituted the city's daily economy. This range aligns him with shin-hanga interest in working-life subjects while preserving the sosaku-hanga manufacturing approach.