Kawase Hasui
A woodblock print artist active from the Taisho into the Showa era, and one of the leading figures of shin-hanga. Known for snow, rain, and night scenes drawn on travels across Japan, he is also called the "poet of travel."
Kawase Hasui was born in 1883 (Meiji 16) in Shiba, Tokyo. He first studied Western-style painting, and in 1910 (Meiji 43), at 27, became a pupil of the Nihonga painter Kaburagi Kiyokata. The art name Hasui was given to him by Kiyokata.
In 1918 (Taisho 7), stirred by the woodblock prints of his fellow pupil Ito Shinsui, he began making landscape prints with the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo. Keeping the ukiyo-e division of labor, in which the artist draws the design and carvers and printers finish it, he aimed at a new landscape expression based on sketching from life; such works are called shin-hanga (new prints). In series such as Souvenirs of Travel, Twenty Views of Tokyo, and Collection of Scenic Views of Japan, he depicted scenery from all over Japan.
He excelled at quiet, slightly lonely scenes such as snowy nights and rainy evenings, and is highly regarded abroad as well. In 1956 (Showa 31), the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Properties asked Hasui to make works that would record woodblock printing techniques. He died in 1957 (Showa 32) at the age of 74.
