Hashimoto Okiie (1899-1993) | Old Castle in Sunset, the Keep of Hikone (Kojo shayo, Hikone-jo tenshu)| Showa period, 20th century

This design of Hikone Castle in the city of Hikone, Shiga Prefecture, is based closely on an eponymous watercolour painting executed in 1941. Hashimoto was proficient in watercolour and oil painting, as well as printmaking. Reverting back to this historic site throughout his career, Hashimoto displayed a fascination with the architecture of traditional Japanese buildings which are at the heart of his corpus.

For the original watercolour in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, reference number 1955.798, go to:

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/84190/watercolor-for-hikone-castle

Born in Tottori Prefecture, Hashimoto graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts as an art teacher in 1924. He worked as a teacher until 1955, creating art in his spare time. It was not until he retired from teaching that he became a full-time artist. He took to the print medium in 1936 after attending Hiratsuka Un'ichi's short course in woodblock printing in Tokyo. He exhibited at the Japanese Print Association for the first time in 1937 and his reputation continued to grow over the following decades. Japanese castles, gardens and landscapes were the predominant subjects of his work, however he went on to produce figure and floral subjects later in his career.

Many examples of his prints are in the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago, go to: 

https://www.artic.edu/collection?artist_ids=Hashimoto%20Okiie

And also the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, go to:

https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections?q=Hashimoto+Okiie&sort=rank