Hasui | Zojo-ji Temple in Shiba, Twenty Views of Tokyo
川瀨巴水 Kawase Hasui ( 1883–1957)
东京二十景 芝增上寺
Zojo-ji Temple in Shiba, from the series of Twenty Views of Tokyo
1925
木版画 | 纵绘大大判 | 39 x 26cm
Woodblock-print | Large Oban tate-e | 39 x 26cm
初版；品相非常好
First Edition; Great condition
SOLD
芝增上寺，即增上寺，是位于今东京都港区芝公园四丁目的净土宗寺院，始建于1393年。其内的标志性建筑为一座有着四百年历史的二重三解脱门，现被日本政府指定为重要文化财。
这一日，彤云密布，凛冽的北风席卷着无数雪花，不住地掠过增上寺。前景的苍松身披银装，风霜满面，似乎已直不起腰。身后三解脱门的双层屋脊与栏杆上同样覆满了厚厚的积雪，映衬着门体的赤红格外鲜明耀眼。门前，顶风冒雪的女子微张和伞，兀自徐行。木屐踏雪声声轻，耳畔虽风雪呼啸，但又似乎寂寥无声。
优秀的风景画定会与人类最深层次的情感产生共鸣。动与静，红与白，强烈对比碰撞出的绝妙视觉冲击，令人久久难以忘怀。如如不动的三解脱门因人类的信仰而诞生，又在漫长的岁月里敞开怀抱，为一代又一代的人们注入了力量与希望。任何一颗被灾难重创过的心，都能因此获得宁静。此作一经推出，销售量便达到了2000张以上，以至于版木都因印刷次数过多而彻底损毁。之后的日子里，它都是巴水最广为人知的作品，登上了无数出版物的封面，售出与拍卖价格更是连年攀升，真正超越了版画的范畴，跃升为如北斋《神奈川冲浪里》般的不朽文化符号。
本作为1925年的初摺之作，色彩明艳，纸质上乘，品相近乎完美，即使是最挑剔的藏家也难以对它说不。灾难总会过去，风雪亦有尽时。人世间最持久的，依然是美与希望。
Swirling strands of snow sweep down diagonally from the dark night, slashing across the main gate of Zojo-ji Temple, buffeting a loan woman who pushes on doggedly, her traditional umbrella pointing towards the future.
This is the most famous design by Hasui; indeed, it is one of the most famous Japanese woodblock prints in history. Strikingly modern in composition while paying homage to traditional Japan, it is so renowned that it has been named a Japanese Intangible Cultural Treasure. Many major museums have it in their collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
This is a very early example, from 1925, the year it was released. You can tell in several ways. It has an “A Seal” on the lower right, the publisher’s earliest. It does not have a cartouche on the left side identifying the series. Colleagues of mine disagree as to whether the absence of this cartouche makes it the very earliest state, or the second -- but still very early – one, which would likely be the same year.
Other clues suggest it is the first: the woman’s kimono is purple, not blue; faint blue bokashi tints the show on the roof of the temple; and a clearly visible band of lighter pigment creates a semi-circle near the top of her umbrella. The black lines of the key block are unbroken.
None of those details dilute the power of the design: a raging snowstorm swiriling against the gememetric mass of the temple gate, and a lone woman pushing on.
Interested in purchasing?
Please contact us.
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 man 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.