Japanese Woodblock Print, 1936, published by Watanabe, this later Reiwa edition from original blocks, with bears the 7mm publisher's seal

SIZE IN INCHES: 15.5 x 10.5 inches

COMMENTS: In recent years the publisher Watanabe has broken with past history, and recarved blocks for reissued prints by Kawase Hasui. An entire new set of blocks was used to create this print, Komagata Embankment, which was originally published in 1919, the blocks having been destroyed in the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923. The print is clearly marked with a new Watanabe publisher's seal that you can see in the lower right margin of this print and a 7mm seal. Prior to this, Watanabe had not recarved any of their reissued shin hanga prints, with all the previous prints being printed from the original first edition blocks.

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). The prints of Hasui feature locale that are tranquil and obscure in the then-urbanizing Japan. The dreamlike quality in his designs epitomizes a yearning for the past and a preservation of the past in the midst of rapid modernization.

Fine, no flaws