Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) | Zojo-ji Temple in Shiba (Shiba Zojoji) | Taisho period, early 20th century

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 passes 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, including:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, (The MET), accession number 1997.255, go to:

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39587

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 49.124:

https://collections.mfa.org/objects/252970/zojoji-temple-in-shiba-shiba-zojoji-from-the-series-twen?ctx=3b565836-5b3a-418e-99ba-00e278db9096&idx=8

The Edo Tokyo Museum, object number 90203125:

https://museumcollection.tokyo/en/works/6239688/