Hasui 巴水: Himeji Castle 姫路城

Artist: Kawase Hasui 巴水 (1883-1957)  Title: Himeji Castle 姫路城 

Series: Hasui's Twelve Landscapes for Uchiwa-e (uchiwa-e junikei).
Date: Undated (ca 1935)

Himeji Castle rises imposingly against a deep blue sky. The clouds ascend up towards the right, continuing the uplift of the roof corners. We can see where its Japanese moniker of “White Heron Castle” comes from, as its shape and white exterior are said to resemble a bird taking flight. Himeji Castle dates from 1333, although and is considered the finest surviving example of Japanese castle archicture from the feudal period.It is the largest and most visited castle in Japan and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

This series of twelve fan prints was first published by Haibara paper shop in about 1934 with the series title “Hasui’s Twelve Landscapes for Uchiwa”. Those were printed with the designs bordered within a printed fan shape. In 1935, the publisher Kato Junji acquired the rights to these designs, and had new blocks carved with the image contained within a square border, (although the original paper passepartout had a fan shape to it). These Kato Junji edition works have red seals verso that indicate the limited edition number, out of a total edition of 200 works. Note that it seems to be an error in the Brown/Hotei catalogue raisonné (page 106), that notes that this Kato Junji published edition featured an edition size of 300. The red limited edition seals on all known examples all clearly state that the total edition number is 200. Both of these early Showa editions were created with soft colors, intended to be rather dreamy and with a  cool atmosphere against the summer heat. 

To continue the history of these designs, in 1988, the Hasui heirs gave permission for the series to be reprinted by the publisher Ayumi Shuppan. Those works have large margins and have the publisher’s name stamped on the right margin, recto, and have no editioning on the prints themselves, but only on the presentation box. The 1988 edition also has much stronger coloration, as they were published more to be designs for exhibition rather than for fan print usage. The title of the posthumous set was “Twelve Views of Famous Places”.

Note that the Haibara editions almost never surface on the market, as it is safe to assume that they were pasted onto summer fans and then discarded in the early Showa era. These Kato Junji edition works are also scarce, as only 200 of each were printed. With the limited edition seal, verso, numbered 157/200.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition. Pencil notation bottom.

Dimensions: Shikishiban (25.4 x 26.4 cm) Publisher: Kato Junji
Literature: Narazaki Muneshige, Kawase Hasui mokuhanga shu, 1979, number Ka-2.; Kendall H. Brown, Kawase Hasui: The complete woodblock prints, 2003, number 373. See the MFA Boston, VMFA museum collections. Seal: Kawase
Signature: Hasui 

SKU: HAC373W