Rare 1926 Kawase Hasui Woodblock Print Gozanoishi Shrine At Lake Tazawa
Item History & Price
Reference Number: Avaluer:595720 | Country/Region of Manufacture: Japan |
This is a rare early / first(?) edition Japanese woodblock print by Kawase Hasui from Souvenirs of Travel, Third Series entitled Gozanoishi Shrine at Lake Tazawa. It has the Watanabe "B" seal.
This print is in vertical oban tate-e format with Image Size: 15" x 10.5"
The print is signed Hasui with artist's seal and has pub...lisher's seal, Hanken shoyu Watanabe Shozaburo (Copyright ownership Watanabe Shozaburo) on lower right margin (Watanabe "B" seal, used between 1924-30), the print title appears on the left margin, Tazawako Gozzanoishi, followed by the date.
This print appears in a Japanese-style bamboo frame under non-reflective glass. Not examined outside of the frame. There are a few small brown spots consistent with age. There appears to be a small tear on the right side near the seals.
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Artist Profile:Shin-hanga artist Kawase Hasui was born as Kawase Bunjiro in Tokyo, Japan on May 18, 1883. Along with Hiroshi Yoshida, Hasui is regarded as the most important artist of the shin-hanga genre.
From an early age, he dreamed of an art career and studied both Japanese and Western-style painting. After seeing an exhibition of Shinsui Ito's Eight Views of Lake Biwa, Hasui approached Shinsui's publisher Shozaburō Watanabe, who had Hasui make three experimental prints that Watanabe published in August 1918. The series Twelve Views of Tokyo, Eight Views of the Southeast, and the first Souvenirs of Travel of 16 prints followed in 1919, each issued two prints at a time. Hasui's twelve-print A Collection of Scenes of Japan begun in 1922 went unfinished when the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake destroyed both Hasui’s house as well as Watanabe's workshop. Watanabe then financed him to go on a sketching trip to produce more series. Hasui travelled the Hokuriku, San'in, and San'yo regions later in 1923 and upon his return in February 1924 developed his sketches into his third Souvenirs of Travel series.
After the WWII Hasui represented a gentler side of Japan in tourist publications, and in 1953 his 'Zojoji in Snow' was commissioned as an 'Intangible Cultural Asset' to represent the co-operative skills of the traditional woodblock print method. During his career he produced over 600 landscape prints.