Off Shinagawa Shore, from the series "Twelve Scenes of Tokyo" Expansion

Off Shinagawa Shore, from the series "Twelve Scenes of Tokyo" 

東京十二題 品川沖

Artist
KAWASE, Hasui
川瀬 巴水
Birth Year
1883
Death Year
1957
Date
1920 
Technique, Material, Format
woodblock 
Dimension
24.3 x 36.4 cm 
Category
Print by Japanese Artist 
Inventory Number
91-PRJ-008 

Kawase Hasui studied with Ito Shinsui and was greatly impressed by his colleague’s landscape prints. After a meeting with Watanabe Shozaburo, a publisher who sought to revive the Edo Period (1603–1868) tradition of ukiyo-e and its system of collaboration between dedicated artists, engravers, and printers, Hasui chose the path of ukiyo-e artist. It was this series, dubbed Twelve Scenes of Tokyo and made from the summer of 1919 to the spring of 1921, that established his reputation. Born and raised in Tokyo and with an easygoing sensibility, Hasui weaved his nostalgia for Edo Period life and culture into twelve refreshing views that weren’t confined to the city’s established landmarks.

The white sailing boats glide between the grass-covered Odaiba, hastily built by the Tokugawa Shogunate in response to Commodore Matthew Perry’s arrival in 1853, and the wooden pilings marking the navigation channel. Hasui witnessed this scene on a lightly overcast summer afternoon while boating.

(SAKAMOTO Kyoko)

* You can see other works from this series.

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