Kawase Hasui – Winter Moon over Toyama Plain (Hasui Kawase – Fuyu no Tsuki (Toyamagahara))

Original woodblock print. The first edition of this design was published in 1931. The current print is from a recent edition.

Japanese woodblock artists have always excelled at displaying night scenes. This might be even more true for the Shin-Hanga artists in the first half of the 20th century, and among those especially for Kawase Hasui, one of its most famous representatives. Here the full winter moon shines through a row of bare trees in a winter landscape that is desolate and dark, yet brightened up and beautiful at the same time.

The same scene was depicted by Kawase Hasui in a pre-earthquake design from 1920, Toyama Plain.

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.

References: K.H. Brown, Visions of Japan. Kawase Hasui’s masterpieces, 2004, p. 81; K.H. Brown, Kawase Hasui. The Complete Woodblock Prints, nr. 260, 2003, p. 420.

An overview of the woodblock prints by Kawase Hasui can be found here.

See an overview of Kawase Hasui's woodblock prints