Hizen, Mount Unzen (1927)

Kawase Hasui prints bring the quiet side of early 20th-century Japan into your home: temple gates under falling snow, village roads in the rain, and lakes lit by a rising moon. Hasui was a leading artist of the shin-hanga ("new prints") movement and one of the most prolific Japanese printmakers of his century. Our collection gathers more than 150 of his landscapes and townscapes as fine art prints.

About Kawase Hasui

Kawase Hasui was born Kawase Bunjiro on May 18, 1883, in the Shiba district of Tokyo, and died in Tokyo in 1957. He studied Japanese-style painting as a teenager, but only committed fully to art after his family's rope and thread business failed when he was 26.

He asked the painter Kaburagi Kiyokata to take him on as a student. Kiyokata first sent him to study Western-style painting with Okada Saburosuke, then accepted him a few years later and gave him the art name "Hasui." In 1918, after seeing Ito Shinsui's prints of Lake Biwa, Hasui approached the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo, and his first woodblock prints appeared that year.

Disaster struck in 1923, when the Great Kanto earthquake destroyed Watanabe's workshop and the fire took 188 of Hasui's sketchbooks. Soon after, he set off on his longest sketching trip, more than three months through western Japan. His colors grew more vivid and his scenes more realistic in the years that followed.

In 1925 his snowy view of Zojoji Temple in Shiba became his best-selling print, and in 1930 he built a house in Magome, the subject of his second most popular design. His final print, of the Golden Hall at Hiraizumi, dates from 1957, the year he died.

Style and Subjects

Hasui worked from sketches and watercolors made on the spot, in Tokyo and on long journeys around Japan. Earlier masters such as Hiroshige and Hokusai often pictured famous sights, but Hasui was drawn to quiet, ordinary places: a canal bank, a shrine path, a farmhouse at dusk. He left off the printed captions common in older prints and paid close attention to natural light, shadow and texture.

Weather and time of day carry his pictures. Look for snow (his snow scenes are often called his finest work), spring and summer rain, mist over the water, and moonlight on temples, castles and bridges. A lone figure under an umbrella often gives each scene a human scale without breaking its calm.

Famous Works

• Evening Snow at Terajima Village (1920), Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo. An early snow scene from the series Twelve Scenes of Tokyo, made the year he first showed falling snow in a print.
• Zojoji Temple in Shiba (1925), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. A lone woman with an umbrella walks through the snow past a temple gate; this was his best-selling print.
• Moon at Magome (1930), Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City. A moonlit view of Magome, where he built his house that year, and his second best-selling design.
• Kiyosu Bridge (1931), National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, D.C. A modern Tokyo bridge at dusk.
• Snow at Zojoji Temple (1953), National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. A late return to a favorite subject, built up in 42 printing stages while the whole process was documented.
• Konjiki Hall at Hiraizumi (1957), Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. His last work, showing the Golden Hall of Chuson-ji Temple.

Decorating with Hasui Prints

The snow and moonlit scenes suit bedrooms, reading corners and any room where you want to slow down. A pair of winter views, such as Zojoji Temple in Shiba and Snow at Zojoji Temple, makes a natural set above a bed or along a hallway.

For living rooms and kitchens, look to his brighter subjects: spring blossoms at Arashiyama, autumn at Oirase, morning views of Mt Fuji and the sea. Rain scenes and misty views of Miyajima sit well in a home office or bathroom where a quiet, cool mood helps. Groups of three or four work well, and they pair nicely with natural wood, linen and simple, Japanese-inspired interiors.

FAQ

What art movement was Kawase Hasui part of?

Hasui was a leading artist of shin-hanga, or "new prints," a Japanese movement that revived traditional woodblock printing in the 20th century.

What is Kawase Hasui's most famous print?

Zojoji Temple in Shiba (1925), from the series Twenty Views of Tokyo, was his best-selling work. Moon at Magome (1930) was the second.

Where can I see original Kawase Hasui prints?

Many museums hold his woodblock prints, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the British Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo.

How can I recognize a Hasui print?

Look for a quiet, everyday Japanese place shown in a particular weather or light: falling snow, rain, mist, dusk or moonlight. There is usually no printed title in the picture, and only a figure or two, often under an umbrella.

Why are there so many snow scenes by Hasui?

Snow was one of his favorite subjects from his first falling-snow print in 1920, and these scenes are widely seen as his best work.

Related Artists

• Utagawa Hiroshige — earlier master of prints of famous places; Hasui chose quieter, lesser-known spots
• Yoshida Hiroshi — fellow shin-hanga printmaker of Hasui's generation
• Ohara Koson — shin-hanga contemporary of Hasui's
• Hashiguchi Goyo — shin-hanga contemporary of Hasui's