Toyamagahara

Toyamagahara depicts the broad plain in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo, a former Edo-period feudal estate later used as a military training ground before partial redevelopment in the Taisho and early Showa eras. As a [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) subject, the open expanse offers Henmi the kind of unpopulated, contemplative urban-fringe scene favored throughout the One Hundred New Views of Tokyo series (1928-1932), which he co-launched with Hiratsuka Un'ichi. Prints of this kind generally rely on flat, layered color blocks and the visible grain of the woodblock rather than the polished gradations of [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e), with the artist carving and printing himself in the jihanga tradition. Sparse foreground detail, a low horizon, and modest [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) in the sky are typical compositional choices for the series, which sought to record the unremarkable corners of the modernizing capital alongside its monuments. Henmi's amateur status as an accountant-printmaker, noted by Helen Merritt, did not prevent his Tokyo views from circulating internationally, with his work shown in Paris in 1934.