Twilight at Futako

Futako refers to Futako-Tamagawa, the crossing of the Tama River at the southwestern edge of Tokyo, an area still semi-rural through the early Showa period. Kasamatsu sets the scene at the transitional hour when residual light remains in the western sky while the riverbanks have fallen into shadow. The print employs an extended bokashi gradient through the upper register, with the river reading as a band of pale tone between darker land masses. Figures, boats, or buildings are reduced to silhouette. Twilight subjects of this kind were a recurring concern for Kasamatsu across his shin-hanga period, prized for the printer's challenge of registering subtle horizontal gradations without banding. The technical demands required experienced hands at the baren — pressure, washi moisture, and pigment loading all bear on whether such a sky reads as continuous color or breaks into stripes. The print belongs to his Tama River and outer-Tokyo studies.