was a prominent Japanese painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and one of the chief printmakers in the shin hanga

Shin hanga

was an art movement in early 20th-century Japan, during the Taishō and Shōwa periods, that revitalized traditional ukiyo-e art rooted in the Edo and Meiji periods...

("new prints") movement.

Kawase studied ukiyo-e

Ukiyo-e

' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...

and Japanese style painting

Nihonga

or literally "Japanese-style paintings" is a term used to describe paintings that have been made in accordance with traditional Japanese artistic conventions, techniques and materials...

 at the studio of Kaburagi Kiyokata. He mainly concentrated on making watercolors of actors, everyday life and landscapes, many of them published as illustrations in books and magazines in the last few years of the Meiji period

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

 and early Taishō period

Taisho period

The , or Taishō era, is a period in the history of Japan dating from July 30, 1912 to December 25, 1926, coinciding with the reign of the Taishō Emperor. The health of the new emperor was weak, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group of elder statesmen to the Diet...

.

In the early Taishō period Kawase was recruited by the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo

Watanabe Shozaburo

was a Japanese print publisher and the driving force behind the Japanese printmaking movement known as shin hanga . He started his career working for the export company of Kobayashi Bunshichi, which gave him an opportunity to learn about exporting art prints...

, with the intention to design works for woodblock prints. Kawase left a large body of woodblock prints and watercolors. Many of the watercolors are linked to the woodblock prints, he also produced oil paintings, traditional hanging scrolls and a few byōbu

Byobu

are Japanese folding screens made from several joined panels bearing decorative painting and calligraphy, used to separate interiors and enclose private spaces, among other uses.- History :...

(folding screens).

In the West, Kawase is mainly known as a Japanese woodblock

Woodblock printing in Japan

Woodblock printing in Japan is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre; however, it was also used very widely for printing books in the same period. Woodblock printing had been used in China for centuries to print books, long before the advent of movable type, but was only...

 printmaker. He and Hiroshi Yoshida

Hiroshi Yoshida

was a 20th century Japanese painter and woodblock print maker. He is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the shin hanga style, and is noted especially for his excellent landscape prints...

 are widely regarded as two of the greatest artists of the shin hanga style, and are known especially for their landscape

Landscape

Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...

 prints.

In 1923 there was a great earthquake in Japan that destroyed most of his artwork. During the forty years of his artistic career, Hasui worked closely with Watanabe Shozaburo, publisher and advocate of the shin hanga movement. His works became widely known in the West through American connoisseur

Connoisseur

A connoisseur is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts, cuisines, or an expert judge in matters of taste.Modern connoisseurship must be seen along with museums, art galleries and "the cult of originality"...

 Robert O. Muller (1911-2003). In 1956, he was named a Living National Treasure

Living National Treasure (Japan)

is a Japanese popular term for those individuals certified as by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as based on Japan's...

 in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

Artistic style

Kawase worked almost exclusively on landscape and townscape prints based on sketches

Sketch (drawing)

A sketch is a rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not usually intended as a finished work...

 he made in Tokyo and during travels around Japan. However, his prints are not merely meishō (famous places) prints that are typical of earlier ukiyo-e masters such as Hiroshige

Hiroshige

was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and one of the last great artists in that tradition. He was also referred to as Andō Hiroshige and by the art name of Ichiyūsai Hiroshige ....

 and Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). Kawase's prints feature locales that are tranquil and obscure in urbanizing Japan.

Important works

• Twelve Scenes of Tokyo (1919-1921)
• Selections of Scenes of Japan (1922-1926)
• Snow at Zojo Temple (1953)
• Hall of the Golden Hue, Hiraizumi (1957; Kawase's final work)

External links

• Works at Shogun Gallery
• Huge collection of works
• Works
• Kawase Hasui's works at Tokyo Digital museum
• Kawase Hasui Information, print gallery,...
• Kawase Hasui Information, auctions,...
• Dream Worlds: Modern Japanese Prints and Paintings from the Robert O. Muller Collection Online Exhibition
• Kawase Hasui's works at Los Angeles County Museum of Art
• Viewing Japanese Prints