Saito Kiyoshi (1907-1997) | Winter in Aizu | Showa period, 20th century

Saito's wintery views of his hometown comprise much of his work. In The Japanese Print Since 1900: Old Dreams and New Visions, Lawrence Smith writes:

'Muted, semi-abstracted views of Japanese country life was to prove one of the most popular in the West.

Saito a native of Aizu, has done many scenes of the hard, snowbound winter of that mountainous area. Indeed, receding figures in the snow are his most characteristic image. Here a peasant is seen wearing the traditional straw-over cape. Saito’s unusual technique, born of innocence rather than originality, of carving multicolour prints from a single block gives a distinctive sense of unity to many of his compositions. The method does encourage somber colours close to each other in tone, and in this example the colours are restricted to black, brown and grey. It may well be that his many snow scenes have proved technically easier for the artist because the white, left in the black paper, tends to separate the blocks of colour which would otherwise run into each other.'¹

1. Lawrence Smith, The Japanese Print Since 1900: Old Dreams and New Visions, (London, 1983), p. 118, no. 93.