Key value factors: As self-carved and self-printed works, sosaku-hanga value is tied to the artist's reputation and edition size. Larger formats, earlier editions, and historically significant works command the highest prices.
This woodblock print depicts the waning days of autumn, when the last leaves cling to nearly bare branches and the landscape prepares for winter's arrival. The Japanese title "banshuu" carries connotations of decline and melancholy that the English "late fall" only partially conveys. Miyamoto Shufu renders this transitional moment with a muted palette of browns, grays, and fading oranges that captures the particular beauty of exhaustion, when the season's brilliance has passed but a quiet dignity remains. The composition likely emphasizes bare branches and thinning canopies, allowing more sky to show through than in the dense foliage of early autumn. Shufu's treatment of late fall avoids the overt splendor of peak koyo, finding instead a subtler visual poetry in the season's last hours.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Late fall — 晩秋 was created by Miyamoto Shufu (宮本秋風).
Late fall — 晩秋 uses Bokashi, on woodblock print.
Late fall — 晩秋 depicts landscapes, trees, and autumn foliage.
