Aioi Pine tree, Shinano province

The Aioi pine—the name refers to paired or joined pines, a single trunk dividing into twin crowns or two trees grown together—was a celebrated specimen in old Shinano Province, modern Nagano. Kasamatsu's print likely centers the tree, with its weathered bark and angular branch structure rendered through a strong key block, set against distant mountains or cultivated fields. The composition isolates the pine as an emblem of longevity, a subject inherited from earlier Japanese landscape painting and Edo woodblock conventions. [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations would model the layered ridges of Shinano's mountainous interior. Tree subjects recur throughout Kasamatsu's seven-decade output: he found in single specimens—pines, willows, blossoming branches—a means of organizing landscape around vertical incident. Trained in Kaburagi Kiyokata's atelier alongside Hasui and Shinsui, Kasamatsu carried this attentive register through both his [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) and [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) periods.