Artist: Kawase Hasui
Medium: Original Japanese Woodblock Print
Series Title: Landscape
Edition: First State
Date: December, 1931
Publisher: Doi Sadaichi
Reference No.: Hotei #260
Size: 15 -1/2 x 10 -1/2 "
Condition: Mint
Notes:
RARE. First state impression, in near pristine overall condition. Carver: Fujikawa; Printer: Goto; Publisher: Doi Sadaichi.
A full moon is shining over Toyama plain in a cold winter night. The faint orange lights from houses in the distance are the only reminder of life in this dark evening scene.
For more than a decade, Doi Sadaichi (1876-1945) dealt in Japanese print reproductions in his shop, Doi Shoten, in San Francisco. He returned to Japan in 1916 but continued to make business trips to America. In 1924, he opened his own woodblock print shop in Tokyo, S. Doi Hangaten. Doi began selling shin hanga prints in 1931, initially with Hasui but later with other artists, most notably Tsuchiya Koitsu. Hasui may have agreed to collaborate with Doi, as he had done with Sakai-Kawaguchi, because of ongoing financial difficulties, perhaps caused by unforeseen expenses during the construction of his new home in Magome and the impact of the earlier 1927 Showa Financial Crisis. Doi would publish twelve of Hasui's prints between 1931 and 1932. Unique from Hasui's works with S. Watanabe, these images with Doi include the names of the block-cutters and printers.