Itako, the lakeside village

Itako, the Lakeside Village portrays the town of Itako in Ibaraki Prefecture, situated on the waterways linking Lake Kasumigaura to the Tone River system. Itako is associated in the Japanese imagination with iris gardens, sappa-bune punt boats, and a network of canals navigated by women in traditional dress — subjects long depicted in ukiyo-e and revived in shin-hanga. Kasamatsu's composition likely sets low village rooftops against still water, with reflections handled through restrained bokashi and the grain of the woodblock left visible in broad water passages. The print would be issued as oban or larger and worked through multiple color blocks, with washi reserved for the highlights of water. The subject extends the meisho-e tradition into a regional, riparian register, and complements his other waterway prints. As with much of his post-war output, Itako reflects the shin-hanga commitment to depicting a Japan whose rural and waterborne fabric was rapidly disappearing under modernisation.