Miyazu in Tango – Kawase Hasui Print (1921)

A traveller vanishing into the snow

Snow falls steadily on the little town of Miyazu. A lone figure walks away from us along the white road, slowly fading into the grey distance, while a line of telegraph poles follows the path. With these few elements, Kawase Hasui captures a Japan caught between two worlds: the timeless calm of a provincial town, and the first signs of modern life.

Miyazu, a harbour town on the Sea of Japan

Miyazu lies on the Sea of Japan coast, in the north of today's Kyoto Prefecture, in what was once the province of Tango. It is best known as the gateway to Amanohashidate, the pine-covered sandbar counted among the Three Views of Japan. Yet Hasui, true to his taste for quiet, everyday scenes, chose to show an ordinary snowy road rather than the famous landmark.

An early masterpiece from before the Great Kantō Earthquake

This print belongs to the second Souvenirs of Travel series (Tabi miyage dai nishū), published by Watanabe Shōzaburō in the early 1920s, only a few years after Hasui made his first woodblock prints. Impressions printed before the 1923 earthquake, which ravaged Tokyo and its print workshops, are now rare and highly prized. The design is held in major museum collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art. Learn more about Kawase Hasui and the shin-hanga movement.

Why it works so well on a wall

Soft, silent and quietly melancholic, Miyazu in Tango brings a gentle winter mood to a bedroom, a study or a reading nook. Its muted palette of whites and greys fits easily into minimalist, Japandi or Scandinavian interiors. Frame it in light oak or white for a soft look, or in thin black to sharpen the silhouette.

• Artist: Kawase Hasui (1883–1957)
• Japanese title: Tango no Miyazu
• Date: 1921 (Taishō era)
• Series: Souvenirs of Travel, Second Series (Tabi miyage dai nishū)
• Publisher: Watanabe Shōzaburō, Tokyo
• Original: color woodblock print, vertical ōban format
• Our print: high-quality reproduction on museum-grade matte paper (not an original woodblock print)

For another of Hasui's snow scenes, discover Snow at Hie Shrine or Tennoji Temple in Osaka, or explore our full Kawase Hasui prints collection.