Hasui 巴水: Uchiyamashita in Okayama 岡山内山下 (Sold)

Artist: Kawase Hasui 巴水 (1883-1957)
Title: Uchiyamashita in Okayama 岡山内山下
Series: Selection of Scenes of Japan 日本風景選集 (Nihon fûkei senshû)
Date: 1923

A man in a bright yellow rain poncho serves as focus in this composition; the rain-glossed path leads to him, and the perspective lines of the building also draw the eye towards him. Approaching him lower right are two women in traditional kimono and high get, who hold their paper umbrellas aloft against the rain, which is shown falling straight down. The setting seems to be part of the lower castle walls of Okayama Castle, whose original Edo-period structure was destroyed in 1945. With the Watanabe seal that was in use between 1928 and 1932. This work was the first Hasui design published by Watanabe following the 1923 earthquake, although most of the 36 designs in this series were done before the September earthquake.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition.
Dimensions: aiban (30.8 x 22.8 cm)
Publisher: Watanabe  Shôzaburô
Literature: Narazaki Muneshige, Kawase Hasui mokuhanga shu, 1979, pl. 112. Irwin J. Pachter, Kawase Hasui and His Contemporaries, 1986, p. 95, pl. 31. Lawrence Smith, Modern Japanese Prints, 1912-1989, 1994, cat. 38, pl. 41. Kendall H. Brown, Kawase Hasui: The Complete Woodblock Prints, 2003, p. 27, illus. p 335, pl. 112. Kawase Hasui Woodblock Prints, Abe Publishing, 2017, p. 93, no. 146. See MFA Boston, Art Institute of Chicago.
Seal: Kawase
Signature: Hasui 

SKU: HAS603