Pine Trees at Ogo Village, Northern Shishu

Pine Trees at Ogo Village, Northern Shishu, dated 1950, places Shiro Kasamatsu's shin-hanga practice in the early postwar period, when the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo's workshop was rebuilding production after the disruptions of war. Shishu is the historical name for what is now Nagano Prefecture, and the northern part of that region is characterised by upland villages, cedar and pine forests, and the long winters of the inland mountains. Kasamatsu organises the print around a stand of mature pines rather than a famous landmark, using the trees' angled trunks and dark canopies to anchor a quiet rural scene. The treatment fits a recurring concern in his postwar work: a turn toward unhurried, often unpopulated landscapes that emphasised continuity with traditional rural Japan rather than postwar reconstruction. Technically the print continues the shin-hanga vocabulary established in the prewar decades, with carved keyblock outlines, layered colour blocks for foliage and ground, and bokashi gradations in sky and distance. By 1950 Kasamatsu had been working with Watanabe for more than three decades, and the partnership had matured into a clearly identifiable house style: muted, atmospheric, and technically precise without becoming ornate. The print is held in the Art Institute of Chicago and contributes to a fuller picture of how shin-hanga adapted in the years immediately after the Second World War.