At Victoria, BC, Canada

A directly autobiographical subject. Kawakami spent part of his youth in Canada, where his father had emigrated for work, and this early exposure to North American urban and architectural forms informed his lifelong engagement with Western motifs. Victoria, on Vancouver Island, would have been among the Pacific Northwest cities he encountered. The print likely depicts Western buildings, harbor views, or street scenes rendered in his characteristic flat-color folk-art style, with the same vocabulary of bold contour and emblematic simplification he applied to Japanese subjects. The subject is unusual within the broader [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) movement, whose practitioners overwhelmingly depicted Japanese landscapes and traditional themes. Kawakami's Canadian and American imagery — alongside his nanban prints — set him apart as a chronicler of cultural encounter who treated Western scenes with the same graphic vocabulary he brought to lamps, kimono, and Christian saints. The print connects directly to the biographical experience that shaped his entire artistic outlook.