Fine Japanese Prints
Fine Japanese Prints
The Property of a Private Collector
Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) | Zojo-ji Temple in Shiba (Shiba Zojoji) | Taisho period, early 20th century
Lot Closed
December 16, 04:28 PM GMT
Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
The Property of a Private Collector
Kawase Hasui (1883-1957)
Zojo-ji Temple in Shiba (Shiba Zojoji)
Taisho period, early 20th century
woodblock print, from the series Twenty Views of Tokyo (Tokyo nijukei), signed Hasui, sealed Kawase, publisher's mark (Hotei 'B', circa 1924-30) to left margin Hanken shoyu Watanabe Shozaburo [copyright reserved, Watanabe Shozaburo], dated Taisho juyonen saku (made in 1925)
Vertical oban: 39 x 26.3 cm., 15⅛ x 10⅜ in.
One of Hasui's most celebrated designs, depicting the vermillion gate of the Zojo-ji Temple in Shiba. A woman walks against the gale of a blizzard, her umbrella partially closed in the snowstorm. She marches before the main gate of the Sangedatsumon, the oldest wooden building in Tokyo, constructed circa 1622. Narazaki Muneshige comments on the design: 'This is a masterpiece within Hasui's oeuvre, and no other by him has received so much praise'.1
1. Translated and quoted in Kendall Brown, Kawase Hasui: The Complete Woodblock Prints, (The Netherlands, 2003), p. 74, no. 147.
Further impressions of the same print are in numerous museum collections. For a similar impression of the same print in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The MET), accession number 1997.255, go to: