Hasui, Kawase (1883 - 1957), "Moon at Umagome (First State)"

Notes: The very first state, with the "Twenty Views of Tokyo" series seal in the left margin. Used as the dust jacket image for the Hotei catalog, "The Complete Woodblock Prints - Kawase Hasui"; 2003.

In describing this print Narazaki writes: '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. A light shines in the window of a thatch-roofed farmhouse. The contrast between the light of the circular moon and that of the small rectangular window is skillful indeed. This work is generally acknowledged as a masterpiece among Hasui nocturnes. A sketch of the tree is in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art. (Hotei Vol. 1 pg. 77).

"Due to the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 - which destroyed almost two-thirds of Tokyo - Hasui moved near the Magome district in 1926 and in 1930 to Magome itself, where he lived until his death. Surprisingly, the number of prints that Hasui created illustrating the surroundings of Magome are not great, although he did keep sketchbooks that portrayed scenes of the area. Throughout his career Hasui produced many albums of sketches; however, tragically, he lost some 200 sketchbooks in the conflagration following the Kanto earthquake. Therefore, his extant sketchbooks date only from the post-earthquake period". - The New Wave; pg. 144

Narazaki notes: "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. A light shines in the window of a thatch-roofed farmhouse. The contrast between the light of the circular moon and that of the small rectangular window is skillful indeed.

This work is generally acknowledged as a masterpiece among the artist's nocturnal scenes.