Approaching Snow
- Date:
- December 1927
- Medium:
- Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
- Format:
- Oban
- Dimensions:
- 36.2 × 24.1 cm
- Publisher:
- Watanabe Shozaburo
- Source:
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
$1,000–$10,000. Snow and night scenes tend to command premium prices for this artist. Key value factors: Yamakawa's limited output and early death at 46 make his prints relatively scarce. Quality bijin-ga command steady prices.
Approaching Snow, printed in December 1927, captures the charged stillness of a winter sky about to release its first flurries. A young woman wrapped in seasonal layers looks upward or into the middle distance, her expression caught between anticipation and reverie. The title suggests a specific meteorological moment: the heavy, muffled quiet that precedes snowfall in Japan, when the air itself seems to thicken.
Shuho executed this [oban](/glossary/oban) print in ink and color on paper, using layered pigments to evoke the leaden tones of a snow-laden sky. The seasonal timing of publication, December 1927, was deliberate; [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) publishers often released prints to coincide with the depicted season, so buyers could display them as the weather matched. The figure's layered clothing and the cool palette reinforce the impression of a world poised on the edge of transformation.
Woodblock print
c. 1832/38
Color woodblock print; oban
Yuki no Miyajima
1929
Color woodblock print; oban
1932
Woodblock print
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Approaching Snow was created by Yamakawa Shuho (山川秀峰) in December 1927.
Approaching Snow was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (December 1927).
Approaching Snow depicts snow scenes.
Approaching Snow measures 36.2 × 24.1 cm (Oban format).
