Kawase Hasui – The Great Gate at Shiba (Hasui Kawase – Shiba Daimon)

Original woodblock print. The first edition of this design was published in 1926. The current print was printed in the Reiwa period (2019 – present).

Kawase Hasui shows the Shiba Gate here, with a person cycling trough it, covered for a very short moment against the surrounding rain. The Great Gate at Shiba was one of the entrance gates to Zojoji temple in Tokyo.

The prints by Kawase Hasui tend to show only glimpses of modernity, if at all. Here the wires and the cyclist are present. About a decade after the first edition of this design modernity would encroach further upon the scene, and the wooden gate would be replaced with a concrete one. This gate has survived the decades after however, and is still present today.

Image size (excluding margins): 33.5 * 22.5 cm (13.2 * 8.9 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. 169, 2003, p. 369.

See an overview of Kawase Hasui's woodblock prints