Hasui, Kawase (1883 – 1957), “Futatsu Hall, Nikko”

Notes: Displays much stronger colors throughout the tree line, then the example in Hotei. Red chop seal on the reverse. Copyright seal in lower right margin. Seal of printer (Komatsu) and carver (Maeda) in lower left margin. The rain is depicted with silver mica overprinting. Properly stored and never framed or displayed. Provenance: From a private East Coast collection. For the past 25 years the prints were properly stored away, with many removed from their original studio folders. "Hasui once described himself as an artist whose works are 'wholly drawn from nature' and states 'that the landscape that I see are also viewed with an eye as to how they would appear in prints...The appearance of the figures that appear in a landscape, the colors of the earth, the customs and manners have not been lost'. Knowing this was the artist's intention, one can perhaps imagine him as he watches the figure of a priest, clad in yellow robes, walking past the Futatsudo at the shrine of the Nikko Toshogu at dusk. Hasui's collaboration with publishers other than Watanabe such as Sakai and Kawaguchi occured from 1929 to 1932. It has often been speculated that the principal reason for Hasui's association with other publishers seem to have been economic. At this time, Hasui was building a new house in Magome and the extra expenses incurred him to look for additional income". - The New Wave; pg. 146