Spring Shower

This print, the likely first or primary version in Kotozuka's Spring Shower series, depicts the visual experience of rain falling through blossoming or newly leafed trees in Kyoto. Thin, slightly diagonal lines printed in a diluted grey-blue ink suggest falling water, laid over a base composition that balances tree forms against a pale sky. Shin-hanga landscape practice treated rain not merely as meteorological fact but as an optical phenomenon — a veil that softens edges, deepens colors, and unifies disparate elements in the composition. Kotozuka's self-published editions gave him control over ink viscosity and impression pressure, enabling him to calibrate the density of rain lines to suit each version.