Hasui | The Road to Nikko
川瀨巴水 Kawase Hasui ( 1883–1957)
日光街道
The Road to Nikko
1930
木版画 | 纵绘大大判 | 38cm x 25.7cm
Woodblock-print | Large Oban tate-e | 38cm x 25.7cm
第二版次；品相完好；
Second Edition; Fine condition
$7,000
日光街道，江户时代开设的陆上五街道之一，以今东京都中央区日本桥为起点，栃木县日光市山内为终点。全道共设立有21处宿场，其中前17处宿场与另一条五街道之一的奥州街道重合。
1929年8月，巴水来到了日光，在全长约37公里的日光杉并木道上，巴水停留了很久很久。道路两旁笔直的杉木摩肩接踵，高耸入云，细密的枝条层层叠叠，将倾泻而下的日光贪婪地吸收了个干净，仅给林下的低矮植被们留了些散成碎片的光斑。道中，一名背着背篓的山民正缓缓走向越来越亮的前方，不消多久，就能沐浴在蓝天白云与和煦阳光之下。
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Kawase Hasui (1883–1957)
Hasui Kawase is perhaps the single most recognized woodblock artist of the Shin Hanga – new print – movement in the early- to mid-20th Century. Because he specialized in landscapes, many would say he was a successor to Hiroshige, noting his enveloping portrayals of nature, and his thoughtful placement of humans within them. But that would be too easy, because Hiroshige and Hasui in many ways could not be more different.
Whereas Hiroshige played with flat plains of negative space, Hasui embraced Western painting styles – if not techniques – to display water reflections, shadows and shades of light in all its combinations. You can easily discern the time of day and season from the light. Signs of the 20th Century Japan are everywhere – rickshaws, cars, telephone poles, steamships, even western-style umbrellas and rain slickers. Yes, he embraced snow and rain scenes like Hiroshige, and many famous views, but they live in a three-dimensional, modern world.
His prints are hugely sought-after today, with condition being extremely important to collectors. Many of the original woodblocks were destroyed in the Great Earthquake of 1923; finding examples of those pre-quake prints is challenging, indeed.
He was born Bunjiro Kawase in Tokyo in 1883, the son of a merchant. Hasui studied Japanese-style painting with Kiyokata and Western painting at the Hakubakai. He exhibited his first painting at 19. The publisher Shozaburo Watanabe – seeing the appeal of woodblock prints to the Western tourists then flooding Japan – took Hasui under his wing. The young man travelled widely to capture landscapes, making sketches as he went. Looking at the detail and perspective in some of his prints, one wonders: did he work from photographs as well?
Hasui’s Zojoji Temple in Snow – with a purple kimono-clad woman pushing against the furious snow with a traditional umbrella -- has been named an Intangible Cultural Treasure, the greatest artistic honor in postwar Japan. He died in 1957.
The publishers Doi, Kawaguchi, Sakai and others also produced some Hasui works. Learning to read the seals on the prints, and therefore dating them, takes time but is well worth it. If you can find this book at a reasonable price, go for it. It’s all there.