Taisho Pond

Taisho-ike is a pond in the Kamikochi valley of the Northern Japan Alps, formed in 1915 when an eruption of Mount Yake-dake dammed the Azusa River. Standing dead trees still emerge from its surface, the result of the original drowning, and the surrounding peaks of the Hotaka range close in on the basin from the north. The pond entered the modern Japanese landscape canon in the early twentieth century as Kamikochi opened to outside visitors, and it became a recurring subject in shin-hanga and sosaku-hanga catalogs alike. A woodblock treatment leans on bokashi for the still water and for the morning or evening haze that often hangs in the valley, with the dead-tree silhouettes carved as fine line work in a separate block. The motif fits Maeda's broader interest in volcanic landscapes and high-elevation water, paralleling his Hokkaido subjects where volcanism likewise shaped the visible terrain.