Hasui 巴水: Evening Shower, Teradomari with Special Dedication 寺泊の夜雨 (Sold)

Artist: Kawase Hasui 川瀬巴水 (1883-1957)
Title: Night Rain, Teradomari 寺泊の夜雨
Series: Souvenirs of Travels, Second Series (Tabi miyage dai nishû) 旅みやげ第二集
Date: 27 August, 1921

A man is bent against the wind and rain, wrapped in a straw cloak and a round straw hat. An evening deluge is coursing down in long sheets. Hasui was a master of depicting with specificity every type of weather, especially snow and the even trickier rain. Here it falls in long, straight lines, very reminiscent of the famous Hiroshige design of Ohashi Bridge from 100 Famous Views of Edo.  We see a soft horizon line floating in the distance, and the grey-blue color of the sky is very subtly different than the color of the water, which is more blue. This is a completely unfaded example in mint condition, with the soft greens and the deep yellows of a work that has never been exposed to light. The vertical windows glow with the coziness of folks at home, warm and dry, and the reflections of the windows are seen in the puddles that are spread in a lovely pattern on the village path. Hasui was also extremely good at depicting a specific time and place; here we see no sign of modern intrusions, even 20th century ones, so we could be looking at a scene from any number of centuries in the past. This small town of Teradomari does not really even exist anymore, at least in name: it was merged recently into the expanded city of Nagaoka, in Niigata Prefecture. A scarce, pre-earthquake design.

With a handwritten dedication by Hasui to Kermit Roosevelt, son of President Theodore Roosevelt, in the left margin that is signed and sealed by Hasui.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition.
Dimensions: ôban (37 x 26.3 cm)
Publisher: Watanabe Shôzaburô
Literature: See the Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts museum collections. Narazaki Muneshige, Kawase Hasui mokuhanga shu, 1979, p. 36, no. 72. Kendall Brown, Kawase Hasui: The complete woodblock prints, 2003, p. 315, no. 72. Hasui Kawase, Kawase Hasui Woodblock Prints, Abe Shuppan, Tokyo, 2009, p. 23, no. 21. Kendall Brown, Water and Shadow: Kawase Hasui and Japanese Landscape Prints, 2014, p. 128, no. IV.71.
Seal: Sui
Signature: Hasui

SKU: HAS602