Landscape and Legend

Utagawa Hiroshige

Evening Snow at Kanbara

c. 1833–34

Woodblock print; ink and color on paper, 22.5 × 34.9 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Snow blankets a village at nightfall as a few travelers struggle on.

• Look for three small figures, bent under umbrellas and straw capes.
• Records suggest he came through in summer, and deep snow is rare there: the snow is invented.
• The snow is bare paper, set against a dark gray sky.

Image: The Met Open Access · Public domain (Met Open Access)