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Hasui Kawase

Hasui Kawase (川瀬巴水, 18 May 1883 – 7 November 1957)

Kawase Hasui, whose name is Kawase Bunjiro, is widely known by his professional name, "Hasui".
He was born at Shiba, Tokyo, on May 15, 1883. From childhood he loved to paint; later, he became a pupil of Kaburagi Kiyokata, and he exhibited his first picture for the Tatsumi Painting Exhibition in 1912.
During the early stage of his art career, Hasui produced only paintings: he became interested in wood block prints after seeing Shinsui's prints, "Eight Views of Lake Biwa".
Some of Hasui's small landscape pictures led S. Watanabe of the Watanabe Print Shop to see his possibilities as a print artist, and Hasui did his first color prints from a series of sketches made at Shiobara in 1918.
There were followed by several series: "Twelve Views of Tokyo", the "Souvenirs of Travel, First Series" in 1919, the "Souvenirs of Travel, Second Series" consisting of 28 prints, in 1923, and "The Twelve Month in Tokyo".
In 1922, he began to produce "A Collection of Scenes in Japan" in 12 installments, but at the time of the publication of the eleventh installment, the great earthquake and fire of September 1, 1923 occurred, destroying the blocks and prints and the artist's precious sketch-book.
Without losing heart at this disaster, he started on October 23rd a sketching tour through the regions of Hokuriku, San-in, Sanyo and elsewhere, returning to Tokyo on February 2nd of the following year.
As the result of this tour, "Souvenirs of Travel, Third Series" was the first prints after the earthquake disaster. Since then he continued to actively produce prints until his death on November 27, 1957, in Tokyo.
In late years, Hasui is getting recognized that he was a great artist by many collectors; For example,
it is famous that Steve Jobs (1955-2011; CEO of Apple Inc.) was also fervent collector for Hasui.

References from Watanabe Print Shop's explanation

Evening Snow at Hououdou 　27,800 yen ($ 278.00) each

SIZE : W 36.3 / H 23.8 (cm)

Showa 26 (1951) drawing

Byodo-in Temple's Hououdou is a World Heritage building and is famous as one of Japan's leading tourist destinations, which is also depicted on the Japanese 10-yen coin.
The phoenix hall is very eye-catching because the entire building is painted in tando red (vermilion) and there is a gold phoenix on each side of the roof.
However, Hasui has not use any color at all, and portrayed the Hououdou temple just with a slight amount of snow in black and white.
It is a typical Hasui like work, that conveys the architectural beauty.

Rain at Ushibori 　33,000円（$330.00） each

SIZE : W 24.5 / H 36.0 (cm)

Designed in 1929

Ushibori has prospered as a port town of Kasumigaura lake same as Itako of the next town. There were a lot of warehouse and factory concerned to marine product industry.

Full Moon at Arakawa River 　US$278 each

SIZE : W 23.6 / H 36.1 (cm)

Showa 4 (1929) drawing

One of the 20 series called "Tokyo Ni Ten Scenic Sites". It is unlikely that there is a house on the banks of the Arakawa River, which is also a first-class river now, but it must have been a very common landscape at that time. At that time, the moonlight was so bright. The light from the house, the small boat floating in the river, the woman carrying the child, etc. were added in a good composition, and the silence of the moonlit night was conveyed.

Senju Waterfall, Akame 　US$278 each

SIZE : W 23.9 / H 36.5 (cm)

Showa 26 (1951) drawing

There is very famous group of waterfalls called Akame 48 Waterfalls in Akame in Mie Prefecture, and one of the largest waterfalls is the Sente waterfall. There is a theory that it was named after the place where it falls down like thousand hands along the rocks. It is a wonderful work in which the white water flowing down from the black rocky waterfall, the weeping Japanese maple, and the deep green waterfall basin are in harmony.

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Snow at Daichi