Kiba at Twilight, from the series "Twelve Scenes of Tokyo"
東京十二題 木場の夕暮
Artist
KAWASE, Hasui 川瀬 巴水
Birth Year
1883
Death Year
1957
Date
1920
Technique, Material, Format
woodblock
Dimension
36.9 x 24.2 cm
Category
Print by Japanese Artist
Inventory Number
91-PRJ-009
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.
Kiba in Koto-ku, Tokyo, is an area known for its views of log driving—transporting wooden logs by floating them down rivers. And yet it is not those famous logs that make this a masterpiece—it is the early winter sunset and its corresponding gradations in both the heavens and the water.
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.
Kiba in Koto-ku, Tokyo, is an area known for its views of log driving—transporting wooden logs by floating them down rivers. And yet it is not those famous logs that make this a masterpiece—it is the early winter sunset and its corresponding gradations in both the heavens and the water.
(SAKAMOTO Kyoko)
* You can see other works from this series.