Hasui, Kawase (1883 – 1957), “Arai-cho, Enshu”

Notes: Near Pristine example, with delicate purple hues still present in the reflection and horizon. Enshu Provence corresponds to part of present-day Shizuoka prefecture. Arai was the 31st station on the Tokaido trail. The production of the twenty-six designs encompassing the series, "Selection of Views of the Tokaido" spanned from 1931 to 1947; the longest time required for any of Hasui's series. The 300-mile Tokaido (Eastern Coastal highway) ran east to west from Edo (present-day Tokyo) to Kyoto during the Tokugawa period (1600-1868). At this time, the fifty-three post stations dotting the highway were celebrated in a number of Ukiyo-e print series, in particular views by Utagawa Hiroshige. It is unlikely that this Hasui series was conceived as a complete Tokaido set, and in fact not all the locations depicted were actual stations. In his 1936 sales catalog, Shōzaburō Watanabe writes: 'It is intended that those places in the Tokaido highway of the present day, which give us a pleasant feeling, are going to be gradually published whenever the artist feels like it and they are on his way of traveling'.