Snow in Shinagawa

This [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) turns from theatrical subjects to landscape and weather, depicting Shinagawa — historically the first post-station on the Tokaido out of Edo and a coastal district of long-standing pictorial reputation — under snowfall. Snow scenes (yukei-zu) in [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) draw on a tradition reaching back through Hiroshige and Hokusai, and the genre remained productive for the early twentieth-century revival that Yamamura participated in alongside Kawase Hasui and Hiroshi Yoshida. The composition likely uses the white of the unprinted [washi](/glossary/washi) as the snow itself, with the carver leaving substantial areas free of color and the printer applying delicate gray and indigo [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations to suggest sky, water, and shadow. Snow falling across the image is typically achieved through overprinting small white pigment dots from a separate block. The print represents an aspect of Yamamura's range less often remarked upon than his [yakusha-e](/glossary/yakusha-e): his engagement with the meisho-e tradition that defined the broader shin-hanga project.