Kawase Hasui (川瀬巴水; 1883 - 1957) is a painter and Illustrateur Japanese working in the technique of the Estampe, celebrates especially for its landscapes. It is one of the most prolific and talented artists of the movement “Shin-Hanga” or pictorial revival. This movement was born under the aegis of the printer Watanabe Shosaburo with Tokyo in the years 1920 which published nearly 600 works of Hasui. A part was destroyed in the earthquake of Tokyo in 1923.

Hasui often travelled through all Japan and filled of the notebooks with its drawings and watercolours, which were used as a basis for the future prints. These drawings were carved in wood with a different block per color. Those had then passed to the printer which applied paper in order to have a perfect installation of the colors.

Hasui painted all the 4 seasons aspects, of the night landscape under the dark moon until the sunny landscapes of summer. In much of prints, contrast is strong between the dark one and the light and its pallet go from blue austere to the gray frozen of the landscapes of winter, and to the scenes of summer brilliantly coloured with the reds of the temples. It gives us a large range of the Japanese landscapes, campaigns and mountains, rivers and lakes as well as a representation of the city with the channels, bridges, warehouses and sanctuaries.

Hasui incorporates only little the human figure. The majority of its prints are landscapes without character, and those which have some are more of the silhouettes of reduced number. Its characters are generally seen of behind and are placed at the edge of the image or in background. Their insulation adds a feeling of sadness or melancholy which is typical of its style.

It is striking to note narrow analogies between the work of Hasui and that of Henri Rivière (1864-1951), painter in watercolours, lithographer and " estampiste" French, whose fertile work was largely inspired by the japonist influence of the last third of the XIXème century. Henri River has be first the European to give to last style technique of wood engraved (wood which it printed on Japan paper of the XVIIIème century to the manner of Hiroshige and Hokusai), technique then famous in Japan. Like Hasui, Henri Rivière depicts little humanized and stripped landscapes, as well as scenes of the life of the every day. The feature of Hasui resembles the " curiously; line claire" of Japanese Henri River and estampists like Hasui, whose artists like Edgar P.Jacobs (Blake and Mortimer) and Hergé (Tintin) were probably inspired themselves.

The most famous print of Hasui is the temple Ninny-ji in Shiba under snow. It represents the temple during a snowstorm. It is in this temple that the tombs of Shoguns Tokugawa are located. The first impression goes back to 1925 and it was reprinted many times (more than 3000) by using the print yokes of origin. That represented here date of the Thirties, recognizable with the Watanabe seal used during these years and located in the right margin and which is read: “Copyright Watanabe Shozaburo. Reproduction prohibited without preliminary permission” (“Hanken shoyû fukyo mosha Watanabe Shôzaburô”). In the left margin, is the title “Temple Ninny-ji, Shiba” (“Shiba Zozoji”) and dates it “makes in the 14th year of the era Taisho (1925) (“Taishô jûyo nen saku”).

In 1953, the Japanese government conferred to him the title of “Alive National treasure”. The trio artist-sculptor-printer joined together by the Watanabe editor saw his most famous print: “Snow with the temple Ninny-ji” indicated Cultural Treasure.

Two examples of landscape of Kawase Hasui: on the right, the Kasuga Sanctuary in Nara (1933); on the left, the Oirase river in Fall (1933)

External bonds

• http://www.estampe-japonaise.com/kawase_hasui.html Article on Kawase Hasui of this site devoted to the Japanese print (Shinhanga) and Japanese art