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Snow

Snow is an accumulation of ice crystals (snowflakes) that form in the atmosphere (usually in clouds), falls to the ground, and covers roadways, vegetation, buildings, and the landscape in general.

Yes, that is Japan's Mt. Fuji in the background.

Snow Activities

Masses of snow on the ground can be inconvenient, but it can also create opportunities. This person is taking advantage of a recent snowfall for cross-country skiing.

Though building snow people isn't exactly a sport, it is still fun to do. It helps if the snow is slightly wet. Dry powder snow doesn't stick together very well.

Snowflakes

It all starts with snowflakes, individual ice crystals, all of which are hexagonal shaped. This is due to the physical structure of water molecules (H₂O). Snowflakes begin as dust motes in frigid, supersaturated air. Water molecules attach themselves to the motes and keep on attaching and freezing until the many, varied, beautiful shapes that result are dense enough to fall to the ground.

Here are just a few examples.

It has been said that no two snowflakes are alike. Whether or not that is true, scientists have identified eight broad classifications of snowflakes and around eighty variants.

Types of Snow

Masses of ice crystals are what make up snow, but snow isn't just snow. There are many different types of snow. It is said that the Inuit have over 100 names for snow depending on its characteristics. That appears to be false. Only around 50 names have been identified. What isn't often appreciated is that English has around 40 snow-related terms of its own.

Here is a small selection of them:

• Blizzard: A violent winter storm that combines subfreezing temperatures, strong winds, and snowfall. To officially qualify as a blizzard, a storm must reduce visibility to less than a quarter of a mile and last for at least three hours.

• Cornice: An overhanging accumulation of ice and wind-blown snow, such as might be found on a cliff face or the edge of a roof.

• Finger drift: A narrow snowdrift across a roadway. So named because several of them together resemble the fingers on a hand.

• Needle: A type of snowflake that is much longer than it is wide.

• Powder: New snow composed of loose, fresh crystals.

• Sastrugi: Irregular grooves and ridges in snow caused by the wind.

• Whiteout – a blizzard or squall that reduces visibility to near zero.

One needs to be cautious to avoid snow blindness (photokeratitis) in certain conditions. Snow reflects ultraviolet light easily which can damage the eye's cornea. It may take days to recover from a bad case of snow blindness.

Winter's End

Winters can be long in some places, but eventually spring comes. Lingering snow hasn't stopped these cherry trees from beginning to bud in Washington, D.C.'s tidal basin.

Among the first new growth to appear in late winter and early spring in western U.S. pine forests is the snow plant (Sarcodes sanguinea). I've seen them sticking out of ground that was still covered with a thin layer of snow on hiking trips when I was younger.

Artwork

Snow scenes were no strangers to Japanese artists. This is not surprising since representation of the four seasons is a major theme in Japanese art. There are representative examples below from many of the major schools of Japanese art, spread out over a 550 year time span.

Tōyō Sesshū (1420 - 1506)

Already a recognized master of Japanese art, especially influenced by Chinese Song Dynasty landscape painting, Sesshū traveled to China in 1468 -1469 for further study. When he returned to Japan, Sesshū established the Unkoku-rin school (School of Sesshū) where he taught many students. He is regarded as the greatest artist of the middle of Japan's Muromachi period (1336 - 1573). Sesshū's Winter Landscape below was painted in 1470. Note the tenkei person, steps, and buildings.

Kanō Tan'yū (1602 - 1674)

The Kanō school of art was founded by Kanō Masanobu (1434–1530), a contemporary of Sesshū's, in the 15th century. It remained highly influential, especially favored by feudal lords, through the end of the Edo period (1603 - 1868). Kanō Tan'yū was a lineal descendent of several Kanō school masters, and is considered one of its greatest masters. The silk hanging scroll below, painted in 1662, contains elements similar to Sesshū's painting.

Shikō Watanabe (1683 - 1755)

Little is known about Shikō other than what can be gleaned from miscellaneous records. He seems to have been a rōnin (masterless samurai) who became an artist. His earliest works were done in the Kanō style, but he was later influenced by Ogata Kōrin's work, too. Kōrin (1658 - 1716) was a master of the Rinpa school of art. It wasn't a formal school like the Kanō school. Rather it was a loose collection of artists who admired each other's works and used similar styles.

It is uncertain who painted the Rinpa school-style byōbu below, but elements show the influence of the Kanō school's Tan'yu, too. Because of the combination of these elements, Shikō is considered to be the most likely artist. This winter scene features a willow tree and egrets.

Maruyama Ōkyo (1733 - 1795)

Ōkyo was born into a farm family. He moved to a town in his teens where his first experience as an artist was painting faces on toy dolls. The shop sold European stereoscopes, giving Ōkyo his first exposure to Western-style perspective. Studying in the Kanō school, Chinese art, and whatever he could learn about Western art, Ōkyo eventually developed his own personal style; a blend of Western naturalism and Eastern decorative design. He sold paintings to temples and aristocrats including the emperor, but he was most popular with wealthy merchants and the public in general. Other artists criticized his work as being too devoted to natural representation. He eventually founded the Maruyama school of painting (later renamed as the Shijō school).

Ōkyo's Pine Trees in Snow byōbu was painted sometime between 1781 to 1789.

Katsushika Hokusai (1760 - 1849)

Hokusai is one of the most famous Japanese artists in the world. Though he is best known for his ukiyo-e (woodblock prints of the floating world) series, 36 Views of Mount Fuji (the series was eventually extended to 46), Hokusai actually produced thousands of paintings on all sorts of media with numerous styles. The first of his two snow prints below is number 10 from the 36 Views series; Tea house at Koishikawa: The morning after a snowfall. It was produced in the 1830 to 1832 time period.

The next print, A Rider in the Snow, was produced in 1833 -1834. Note the tenkei building in the middle left of the painting.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 - 1858)

The Japanese artist who most closely rivals Hokusai in world-wide reputation is Hiroshige. Unlike Hokusai, Hiroshige tended to specialize in landscape paintings, most of which were in hanga (woodblock prints) though he did other media and subjects, too. His most famous works are the two series, The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (produced in 1833–1834) and One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856–59). Hiroshige II completed the last few numbers of the series after Hiroshige's death. Both series were wildly popular.

The first of Hiroshige's prints below is from his 53 Stations series, number 46: Kameyama (A castle on a snow-covered slope). Note the village below the travelers on the road up the mountain.

This second print, produced in 1857, is Meguro Drum Bridge and Sunset Hill, number 111 from his 100 Famous Views of Edo series (there were 117 in all). Meguro is the name of the river.

Kobayama Kiyochika (1847 - 1915)

Kiyochika was an ukiyo-e artist whose work documented some of the rapid changes taking place in Japan after it opened to the West. Considered the last significant ukiyo-e artist, he was forced to switch to producing newspaper illustrations when papers became the public's preferred means of following current events. His work found temporary spells of popularity with military-related hanga prints during Japan's wars, but those periods didn't last. In his later years, Kiyochika switched to painting in the Shijō school style.

The print below, copied from a painting of Kiyochika's, was produced posthumously about 1929.

Yamamoto Shōun (1870 - 1965)

In his teens, Shōun studied with the Kanō school and later the Nanga (Southern) school; generally literati who admired traditional Chinese styles of art. A hanga print artist, illustrator, and painter, Shōun's prints are thought of as a bridge between the ukiyo-e and shin-hanga movements. He is best known for his prints of traditionally dressed beautiful Japanese women.

The print below, Winter Landscape with Crows, was produced sometime between 1912 and 1926.