Japanese Woodblock Print, 1953 1st/Only Edition, published by Shozaburo Watanabe for Pacific Transport Lines calendar in a single edition of only 500

SIZE IN INCHES: oban, 15 x 10.25 inches

COMMENTS: Narazaki explains that 500 examples of this calendar were commissioned by the Pacific transport lines for distribution in the United States and that it was created within the time-honored tradition of meisho-e (pictures of famous views). He adds that while Hasui did not ordinarily undertake this type of work, the artist seems to have become quite engrossed in this project in an effort to convey a sense of the quintessential Japanese landscape." and "Both the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo and Hasui attached importance to the fact that these compositions were intended as souvenirs for foreigners." The title and the artist's signature are printed in English in the bottom margin. This impression is still attached at the top to the original card from the calendar.

KAWASE HASUI (1883-1957) was a Japanese woodblock print maker in the early 20th century. He and Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) are widely regarded as two of the greatest artists of the shin hanga style, and are known especially for their excellent landscape prints. During the forty years of his artistic career, Hasui worked closely with Watanabe Shozaburo (1885-1962), publisher and advocate of the shin hanga movement. His works became widely known in the West through American connoisseur Robert O. Muller (1911-2003). In 1956, he was named a Living National Treasure in Japan.

Hasui worked almost exclusively on landscape and townscape prints based on sketches he made in Tokyo and during travels around Japan. However, his prints are not merely meisho (famous places) prints that are typical of earlier ukiyo-e masters such as Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). Hasui’s prints feature locale that are tranquil and obscure in the then-urbanizing Japan. The dreamlike quality in Hasui’s prints epitomizes a yearning for the past and a preservation of the past in the midst of rapid modernization.

VG, no flaws of note