Kawase Hasui – Lake Chuzenji, Nikko

Original woodblock print. The first edition of this design was published in 1930. The current print was printed in the Reiwa period (2019 – present).

In the lower margin the title and year of the first edition have been written in Japanese kanji: Made in Showa 5 (昭和五年作) and Lake Chuzenji, Nikko (日光中禅寺湖)

This Kawase Hasui print is part of a group of designs he first made around 1930 for the publisher cooperation Sakai-Kawaguchi. The woodblocks were destroyed during the war however, and after the war the rights for the design were transferred to publisher Shobisha, who has republished the designs from the 1950s onward with newly carved blocks. Kawase Hasui was involved in this process and the prints are originals, but the listing of the date of the first edition could be debated. Within the woodblock print community the years of the initial designs are used and that is followed here.

Image size (excluding margins): 35.0 * 22.0 cm (13.8 * 8.7 in).

The print is in excellent condition.

The pictures shown here are from the print itself.

References: K.H. Brown, Kawase Hasui. The Complete Woodblock Prints, nr. 214, 2003, p. 396.

See an overview of Kawase Hasui's woodblock prints