Japanese Woodblock Print, 1919, pre-earthquake edition with publishers 6mm seal, published by Shozaburo Watanabe

SIZE IN INCHES: oban, approx. 10.5 x 15.25

COMMENTS: The wood blocks used to print this design were destroyed in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, which leveled Tokyo and set off fires that burned much of the city, including the workshop of Shozaburo Watanabe. All woodblocks carved before the quake were lost in the fire, thus the original designs were never reprinted. Pre-earthquake prints published by Watanabe (and most other Tokyo woodblock print publishers) are rarities.

KAWASE HASUI (1883–1957) was a Japanese woodblock print maker in the early 20th century. He and Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) are widely regarded as two of the greatest artists of the shin hanga style, and are known especially for their excellent landscape prints. During the forty years of his artistic career, Hasui worked closely with Watanabe Shozaburo (1885-1962), publisher and advocate of the shin hanga movement. His works became widely known in the West through American connoisseur Robert O. Muller (1911-2003). In 1956, he was named a Living National Treasure in Japan.

Hasui worked almost exclusively on landscape and townscape prints based on sketches he made in Tokyo and during travels around Japan. However, his prints are not merely meisho (famous places) prints that are typical of earlier ukiyo-e masters such as Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). Hasui’s prints feature locale that are tranquil and obscure in the then-urbanizing Japan. The dreamlike quality in Hasui’s prints epitomizes a yearning for the past and a preservation of the past in the midst of rapid modernization.

Fine, no flaws