Evening Showers at Matsunoshima (Pre-Earthquake)

Catalog ID: 10972

Artist: Kawase Hasui
Medium: Original Japanese Woodblock Print
Series Title: Mitsubishi Fukagawa Series
Edition: First State
Date: 1920
Publisher: S. Watanabe Color Print Co.
Reference No.: Hotei #46
Size: 10 x 15 "
Condition: Very fine, with superb colors

Notes:

First state impression, in far superior condition to the example shown in Hotei.

The Mitsubishi Company planned this set of eight woodblock prints illustrating the Iwasaki family's Kiyosumi detached villa and garden at Fukagawa in eastern Tokyo as gifts for their domestic and foreign clients. Hasui's sketches of the villa were published as prints by Watanabe Shozaburo in 1920 and such commission would add to the artist's growing international reputation. This design is widely regarded as the best work in the entire set. The black shadows from the sky cast a deep indigo-blue light that surrounds the rocks under the pines; flickers of light are seen in the windows of the buildings on the opposite bank.