Artist: Kawase Hasui
Medium: Original Japanese Woodblock Print
Series Title: Twenty Views of Tokyo
Edition: S. Watanabe Seal
Date: 1930
Publisher: S. Watanabe Color Print Co.
Reference No.: Hotei #165
Size: 15 -1/2 x 10 -1/4 "
Condition: Very fine, with superb colors
Notes:
From the series, Tokyo Nijukei (Twenty Views of Tokyo). Signed, 'Hasui'. Stamped on the reverse, "Made in Japan". Published by Watanabe Shozaburo, and dated 1930. This design was used for the cover image of the Hotei catalog: Kawase Hasui - The Complete Woodblock Prints.
Executed in delicate blue-green tones, this iconic Hasui design shows a quiet section in Magome, at this time still a rural district on the southern outskirts of Tokyo. The technique of bokashi is used to create a gradual tonal transition in the sky, with the glow of the full moon echoed in the softly lit window of the home. The partly concealed moon adds to the serene, melancholic mood of the entire image. Tall pines, rice fields and a thatched-roof house evoke the nostalgic, traditional Japan often celebrated in the artist's works.
The print is further described by Narazaki: "This scene conveys the rustic 'poetic' charm of Umagome, the area where Hasui lived. A scene after a rain, the trunks of a few ancient pines are magnified, a clear, full moon is spied through their branches - the entire picture is conceived as if the dark blue sky and land are one. This work is generally acknowledged as a masterpiece among the artist's nocturnal scenes.