Shotei's landscapes are his most widely available works. Signed lifetime editions with strong color and condition represent good collector value. Post-earthquake reprints lacking signatures and seals are common and trade at lower prices.
The Sumida River in snow — one of the canonical subjects of Tokyo winter landscape — appears here with a different emphasis or compositional approach than Shotei's other snow-on-river treatments. The broad river carrying boats through a snowstorm or past snow-covered banks gave artists the opportunity to show urban Japan transformed by winter into something quieter and more abstract. Shotei uses the [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) treatment to render the falling snow as atmosphere rather than individual flakes, creating the uniform grey-white haze of heavy snowfall.
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.
River Sumida in snow was created by Takahashi Shotei (高橋松亭).
River Sumida in snow uses Bokashi, on woodblock print.
River Sumida in snow was published by Watanabe Shozaburo.
River Sumida in snow depicts landscapes, snow scenes, and rivers & lakes.
