Hasui, Kawase (1883 – 1957), “The Red Setting Sun”

Notes: This design was completed on a slightly smaller sheet; due to the compliance of wartime rationing of paper and other materials. S. Watanabe D-type seal; as shown in Hotei. The shita-e (preparatory drawing) for this print was done on September 17th 1937; with the actual print production completed that same month. In 1937, Hasui designed four prints with war themes. Although none make references to a specific location or incident, they were produced from September to December; some five months after the outbreak of the second Sino-Japanese War in July 1937. Most of the figures in these prints are silhouetted against a light ground. Watanabe Shoichiro, the grandson of the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo, relates the story that Hasui carried impressions of these four prints with him on his sketching tours throughout Japan as proof to the authorities who stopped and interrogated him that he was a patriot and not a spy. - Waves of Renewal, pg. 157 SCARCE.