Kasamatsu Shiro – Dusk at Ochanomizu

Original woodblock print. The first edition of this design was published in 1956. The current print was printed in the Reiwa period (2019 – present).

Kasamatsu Shiro shows the falling evening over Ochanomizu, Tokyo. About 20 years earlier the French Japanese print artist Noel Nouet must have stood at almost the same place, drawing up the same view, at the same time of the day. Of course, the style is completely different, in part also due to Noel Nouet being a pencil artist and his publisher Doi publishing the prints very close to his pencil style. Still, the atmospheres are close and if one takes a liking to one of these two prints, it would be interesting to also view the other one. To be sure, the Noel Nouet print is much harder to come by, but the print by Kasamatsu Shiro has been reprinted recently by publisher Unsodo and prints from the recent edition are readily available.

Variants of this design are known, with different colors used and with a big impact of the depiction of the falling evening. The recent edition that the current print is from uses subdued colors, making the evening seem later, close to night.

Image size (excluding margins): 36.0 * 24.0 cm (14.2 * 9.4 in).

The print is in excellent condition.

The pictures shown here are from the print itself.

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Kasamatsu Shiro (1898-1991) was a prolific and famous woodblock artist. When only aged thirteen he started as an apprentice. He could trace part of his artistic lineage back via Kaburagi and Yoshitoshi, connecting him to the great Ukiyo-e masters of the 19th century.

He created many prints in the Shin-Hanga style. Many of these depicted traditional themes like landscapes and temples, but within that Shiro displayed great diversity. His prints in the period of 1952-1960 in this style were very successful. This enabled him to experiment and he started working in the Sōsaku-Hanga (creative prints) movement as well, not only designing but also carving and printing himself.

See an overview of Kasamatsu Shiro's woodblock prints