December — 其十二 ゆき見

"December" (其十二 ゆき見 — "the twelfth, snow viewing") from 1898 completes the monthly series with the December subject of yukimi — viewing the first snow or a particularly beautiful snowfall, a contemplative winter practice celebrated in Japanese poetry. The snow-viewing scene combined aesthetic appreciation with the specific physical quality of winter: the cold air, the whitened garden or street, the warmth of the interior space from which the snow was observed. Shuntei renders the final month's characteristic pleasure — the beauty of winter cold observed from a position of domestic comfort.