Takeji Asano – Rain in Shinnyodo

Original woodblock print. The first edition of this design was published circa 1950. The current print was printed in the Reiwa period (2019 – present).

The composition of the print is typical for a number of designs by Takeji Asano, with a temple shown and a few people walking leisurely. Besides the difference in the places depicted, these designs are set apart by the different seasons of the scenes, with rain, snow or very bright or subtle early spring sunlight present. The current scene shows heavy rain on the Shinnyodo temple in Kyoto, in what is most likely late spring.

Image size (excluding margins): 36.5 * 24.0 cm (14.4 * 9.4 in).

The print is in excellent condition.

The pictures shown here are from the print itself.

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Takeji Asano(1900-1999) combines several of the typical activities of 20th century woodblock artists. He was trained at art schools in Kyoto and started out with oil painting. He then transitioned to woodblock printing within the Sōsaku-hanga (creative prints) movement. As such, he created prints from start to finish, drawing, carving and printing them himself. In the 1950 he switched to the process used by the Shin-hanga (new prints) movement which adhered to the division of labor used by traditional ukiyo-e artists. For these prints he only drew and cooperated with carver, printer and publisher to achieve the final result. Later on he turned to a more individualistic and novel style and kept creating until the very last years of his long life.

See an overview of Takeji Asano's woodblock prints