Kawase Hasui – Winter Moon over Toyama Plain (Hasui Kawase – Fuyu no Tsuki (Toyamagahara))

Original woodblock print. The first edition of this design was published in 1931. The current print was printed in the Reiwa period (2019 – present).

Japanese woodblock artists have always excelled at displaying night scenes. This might be even more true for the Shin-Hanga artists in the first half of the 20th century, and among those especially for Kawase Hasui, one of its most famous representatives. Here the full winter moon shines through a row of bare trees in a winter landscape that is desolate and dark, yet brightened up and beautiful at the same time.

The same scene was depicted by Kawase Hasui in a pre-earthquake design from 1920, Toyama Plain.

Image size (excluding margins): 36.3 * 24.0 cm (14.3 * 9.4 in).

The print is in excellent state. There is a tiny printing imperfection in the upper left corner, where there is a small darker spot within the sky.

The pictures shown here are from the print itself.

References: K.H. Brown, Visions of Japan. Kawase Hasui’s masterpieces, 2004, p. 81; K.H. Brown, Kawase Hasui. The Complete Woodblock Prints, nr. 260, 2003, p. 420.

See an overview of Kawase Hasui's woodblock prints