Rain in Maekawa, Soshu

Kawase Hasui 川瀬巴水 (1883 - 1957)

Pre-eminent Japanese woodblock print artist of the twentieth century, celebrated as one of the foremost exponents of the shin-hanga (“new prints”) movement. Born in Tokyo in 1883, Hasui originally aspired to a career in Western-style painting, studying under the painter Okada Saburōsuke. His artistic direction changed after encountering the prints of Kaburaki Kiyokata, who encouraged him to pursue design for woodblock prints. Under Kiyokata’s guidance, Hasui adopted the name “Hasui” and began producing designs for the publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō in 1918, a collaboration that would define his career. Hasui’s prints are distinguished by their lyrical depictions of the Japanese landscape—tranquil temples, snow-covered villages, and moonlit harbours—rendered with a refined sensibility to atmosphere and light. His mastery lay in translating fleeting moments of weather and time into woodblock form, combining Western techniques of perspective and shading with the traditional ukiyo-e idiom. Many of his works were produced following extensive sketching tours across Japan, which he undertook throughout the 1920s and 1930s. In 1923, the Great Kantō Earthquake destroyed much of his early work, yet Hasui continued to create prolifically thereafter, contributing to the revitalisation of the woodblock print tradition in the modern era. His series, including Souvenirs of Travel (Tabi miyage), Snow, Moon and Rain (Setsugekka), and Views of Tokyo, are among the most admired achievements of shin-hanga. Recognised nationally, Hasui was designated a Living National Treasure (Ningen Kokuhō) in 1956, one year before his death. His prints, characterised by poetic serenity and technical precision, stand as enduring expressions of modern Japanese romanticism and continue to influence landscape artists worldwide.

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