Spring at the Moat

Spring at the Moat almost certainly depicts a stretch of the Edo-castle moat in central Tokyo, ringed by the cherry trees and willows that draw crowds to Chidorigafuchi and the Imperial Palace grounds each April. The composition would set the moat's stone embankment as a strong horizontal, with cherry blossoms or new willow growth massing along the water and the moat's surface carrying their reflected color. Spring prints place specific demands on a workshop: cherry pink is achieved through pale, repeated impressions of a single pigment block, often with bokashi shifts from the petal interior outward; the green of new leaves requires multiple greens overlaid to avoid a flat poster effect. The moat runs through the entire history of Edo and modern Tokyo printmaking, from Hiroshige's Edo views forward, and Kasamatsu's contribution belongs to the shin-hanga reworking of those famous places under the new printing standards Watanabe Shozaburo had set. Sakura subjects are less frequent in his catalogue than rain or snow, which marks this print as a less typical seasonal entry for the artist.