Kawase Hasui – Rain at Omiya (Hasui Kawase – Ame no Omiya)

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

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): 38.0 * 27.0 cm (15.0 * 10.6 in).

The print is in excellent condition.

The pictures shown here are from the print itself.

References: K.H. Brown, Visions of Japan. Kawase Hasui’s masterpieces, 2004, p. 76. K.H. Brown, Kawase Hasui. The Complete Woodblock Prints, nr. 215, 2003, p. 396.

See an overview of Kawase Hasui's woodblock prints