Signed Hasui in black ink with the artist’s red seal Kawase, lower right. The 6mm circular seal of publisher Watanabe (used 1946-1957), lower left, indicating a lifetime impression.
A fine impression, with fresh colors; on cream wove Japan paper, the full sheet with margins, in excellent condition.
Image size 9 7/16 x 14 1/4 inches (240 x 362 mm); sheet size approximately 10 3/8 x 15 1/4 inches (264 x 387 mm).
Collections: Art Institute of Chicago; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
ABOUT THE IMAGE
The village of Narusawa is located in Japan’s Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, which was established in the same year Kawase Hasui’s “Mt. Fuji, Narusawa” image was printed. The park partially encompasses the foothills of Mt Fuji, seen here as the backdrop to a family farm as a mother and daughter perform their daily chores. A drift of late autumn clouds passes above the distant forest, whose leaves have turned with the changing season.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Hasui Kawase (1883–1957) remains one of the most celebrated 20th-century Japanese print designers of the shin-hanga ('new prints') movement pioneered by the renowned publisher Watanabe Shozaburo. Hasui worked almost exclusively on landscape and townscape prints based on sketches he made in Tokyo and during his travels in Japan. His subjects are not only 'meishō' (famous places) prints which were typical of the earlier ukiyo-e masters such as Hiroshige and Hokusai, but also feature tranquil and picturesque scenes in obscure locations. Hasui considered himself a realist and employed his training in Western painting to create his lyrical renderings with naturalistic light, shade, and texture. In 1956, he was named a 'Living National Treasure' in Japan.
