Kawase Hasui – Snow at the Shin Bridge, Nikko (Hasui Kawase – Nikko Shinkyo no Yuki)

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

The Sacred Bridge (Shinkyo) is a famous bridge, part of the Futarasan Shrine in Nikko. There has been a bridge in the same location for a long time, and the current bridge was build in the same design as the bridge that was present there since 1636.

Its red and black colors stand out in the scenic nature around it. Not surprisingly, it was a popular scene for Shin-Hanga artists, and many of them, including Hiroshi Yoshida and Tsuchiya Koitsu, depicted it. Here Kawase Hasui shows it in a winter landscape, with snow slowly falling all around.

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): 22.0 * 35.0 cm (8.7 * 13.8 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. 75. K.H. Brown, Kawase Hasui. The Complete Woodblock Prints, nr. 213, 2003, p. 395.

See an overview of Kawase Hasui's woodblock prints