Gesso Yoshimoto

Ito Yuhan

Ito Yuhan (1882-1951) was a Shin hanga artist who designed a series of woodblock prints in the 1930s for publisher Nishinomiya Yosaku. These prints are in unmistakable Shin hanga style and depict landscapes and famous Japanese places. That notwithstanding, within the Shin hanga movement, Ito Yuhan is an absolutely unique artist with an unforgettable style. This is best exemplified in his prints where the key-block was omitted during printing, even if it was used during the creation process of the woodblocks. As a result, the sharp black outlines that are present in other Shin hanga designs are missing, and combined with printing in soft tones and with many color gradients, the result is almost like watercolor paintings. There is some discussion within the Japanese woodblock print community as to when the Ito Yuhan woodblock prints were first made. We estimate that, as written above, the first editions were made in the 1930s, for two reasons. First of all, in H. Merritt and N. Yamada, "Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975" (1995, p.48) it is written that Ito Yuhan was active in the 1930s. It is hard to imagine the first editions of the prints being made only 20 years later. Even if that did happen for some woodblock prints of other artists, those were always exceptions with many other prints being made closely after designing them. Of course, this relies on the assumption that H. Merritt and N. Yamada are correct, which we cannot further verify, but it is a very safe assumption to make. Secondly, there are copies of Ito Yuhan prints with the famous "Made in Japan" stamp on the back. Even if such a stamp does not provide an absolute guarantee that the print was created circa 1930s, it increases the likelihood a lot as the stamp is disproportionately found on prints from around the 1930s. Another question is then when later editions were printed. This is unfortunately hard to establish exactly. Even if it is possible to see the differences in editions, there are no good comparison prints available that are firmly established for a certain period. What complicates this further for some designs is the lack of use of a key-block. Normally it is at least somewhat possible to order Japanese woodblock prints chronologically by their printing period based on the degradation of the key-blocks visible in imperfections in subsequent editions. However, due to the absence of key-block lines in some designs, such an approach relying on block-degradation to date is less effective for some of the Ito Yuhan prints, even if still partially possible. In general, we provide a wide margin then for our estimations of the dates of Ito Yuhan woodblock prints. That said, discerning the various prints is all the more important in the case of Ito Yuhan since the differences are significant due to the printing with so many color gradients.

Kawase Hasui

Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) has become one of the most popular woodblock print artists of our time. Already recognized as a world-class artist during his lifetime, his designs have aged well and have continued to capture successive generations. An advantage for current woodblock print enthusiasts is that the woodblocks for some of Kawase Hasui's designs have survived to this day and continue to be printed occasionally. In this way, the nature of the woodblock print medium has enabled Kawase Hasui to even posthumously drive the creation of new art pieces well into the 21st century. With this, Kawase Hasui's prints can very broadly be divided into two categories: earlier and recent editions. Prices for both have been steadily rising, but unsurprisingly it is the early editions that command the highest prices. Some of these designs are from before the 1923 earthquake, and have not been printed since, due to the loss of their original woodblocks in the disaster. Others were designed and printed afterwards, both during the lifetime of Kawase Hasui and posthumously. Depending on the design, time of printing, quality of the impression, state of the woodblocks at the time, prevalence of surviving prints, their state, and many other factors, such prints have been breaking records at auctions in recent years. The second broad category consists of recent editions. Though more affordable, there are unavoidable limits to their availability. Kawase Hasui's designs are challenging to print, requiring a highly skilled printer, and even then it takes significant time to complete all impressions. Only three publishers that worked with Kawase Hasui are still successfully printing his works, and all three hold a high standard, preferring higher-quality prints in more limited quantities over increases in numbers. Recent editions might be considered more suitable for display or collection in larger numbers, and earlier, especially lifetime editions, could be considered too rare for prolonged display. At nipponprints.com we offer both categories of Kawase Hasui prints for sale. In case you have Kawase Hasui prints you wish to sell, we are also interested in hearing from you. For further reading and a good overview of Kawase Hasui prints, the go-to work is Kendall Brown and Amy Reigle's Kawase Hasui: The Complete Woodblock Prints, published by Hotei. For more concise but more affordable works, we recommend Kendall Brown's Water and Shadow: Kawase Hasui and Japanese Landscape Prints or Visions of Japan: Kawase Hasui's Masterpieces.

Full Moon

Bamboo Grove

Boathouse

Woodcutter

Bird and Magnolia

A Bunting

Fisherman Returning

Wild Goose over a Snowy Pond

Sparrow and Bamboo

Owl in the Evening

Cherry Trees above the Water

Blue Bird and Asters

Related Artists

Koho Shoda

Ito Yuhan

Kawase Hasui

Eijiro Kobayashi