Hasui 巴水: Daimotsu, Amagasaki 尼崎大物 (Sold)

Artist: Kawase Hasui 川瀬巴水 (1883-1957)

Title: Daimotsu, Amagasaki 尼崎大物  Date: 1940

Series: Collection of Scenic Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition 日本風景集 関西篇

A man has found a seat on some lumber outside of an industrial building; he watches a smoky fire that glows orange at the base.  Above is a full moon that is a paler orange, and the lights on the industrial buildings in the distance also glow orange. It is evening, and the dominant colors are greys leaning to greens. Narazaki wrote “This is the Daimotsu Bay made famous in the The Tale of the Heike of the early Kamakura period [1185-1333]. These days there are few opportunities for a traveller to experience this area as it once was since it is now part of the harbour district in the Hanshin industrial belt. For this reason Hasui’s depiction is interesting” (See Brown page 101, number 335). This work has Watanabe’s small, round postwar (1945-1957) seal in the lower left corner. Works with a prewar seal almost never appear on the market; we can imagine that the combination of this being the period  that Americans (Hasui’s strongest market) were already shying away from purchasing Japanese art as well as this being an industrial scene with a darker palette meant that few were printed in the initial edition. The LACMA collection from the Juda collection also has this postwar seal. Works with the somewhat larger round Watanabe seal in the left margin seem to have been published much later. This example has woodgrain in the sky, which indicates that the blocks were not much used at the time of this printing.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition.
Dimensions: ôban 39.2 x 26.2
Publisher: Watanabe Shôzaburô
Literature: Narasaki #241; Brown/Hotei #335. See LACMA, VMFA museum collections. Only the Balcer collection VMFA example has the prewar Watanabe seal. Seal: Kawase
Signature: Hasui 

SKU: HAS653