Snow heaped on a vermilion shrine above still shallows

Snow lies thick on the vermilion shrine buildings at Miyajima under a clear winter sky. The torii upright and the covered corridor on their stilts run diagonally across the upper sheet, roofs heaped with white above the red posts. Below, the shallows are printed in bands of pale and deeper blue with snow lying in soft shapes over the sand, and the shrine's posts throw their reflection into the water. The blue sky is worked in fine hand-cut lines with white cloud at the top.

Kawase Hasui (1883–1957) was the defining landscape artist of shin-hanga, the movement that carried Japanese woodblock printing into the twentieth century. From 1918 he worked with the publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō, travelling almost continuously through Japan and turning roadside sketches into prints of unusual atmospheric precision. Snow, rain and failing light were his real subjects, as much as any temple or harbour. In 1956 Japan recognised his woodblock technique as an Intangible Cultural Property. His prints are held by the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Printed as a museum-grade giclée on Hahnemühle fine art paper using 12-ink archival pigment printing. Available handframed in FSC-certified wood with optional float glass, or unframed. Ships worldwide with free delivery to 30+ countries.