Magome no tsuki (Full moon at Nagome) from the series Tōkyō nijūkei (Twenty Views of Tokyo)

Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) was probably the greatest single artist of Japan's <em>shin-hanga </em>('modern print') movement of the early to mid 20th century. The British Museum website states : ‘he has now become recognised as Japan’s best print landscapist since Hiroshige’. A relatively late entrant into art, he was was initially compelled to work for the family rope and thread wholesale business. However, he approached Kiyokata Kaburagi to teach him, who initially rejected him and persuaded him to study western-style painting which he did for two years. He then reapplied as Kaburagi’s student, who this time accepted him. In 1917 he was attracted to an exhibition by Shinsui Ito (<em>Eight Views of Omi</em>), and then approached the great <em>shin-hanga </em>publisher Watanabe Shozaburo who got him to make three experimental prints. The rest is history: Hasui designed more than 600 woodblock prints in only 40 years, some printed in editions of up to 3000 impressions and enjoyed commercial success in Japan and internationally.

The humble subjects of Hasui’s rural views encouraged quiet, nostalgic reflection on worlds much removed from the urban bustle of Tokyo or Osaka. Simple, lonely settings, viewed at dusk, or by moonlight, evoked responses of tranquility or melancholy in his viewers. That sense of melancholic solitude permeates Hasui’s nocturne view of a full moon shining through pine branches at Magome. Hasui lived in the Magome area in Shochu (Sagami) province – today’s Kanagawa Prefecture. This was a familiar scene, but the view seems also detached. The foreground field separates the scene from the viewer, and the dark blue tonality and cloud-veiled moon signal the chilly arrival of autumn. The brightness of the moon is echoed below in the only other source of light, Hasui’s signature illuminated window. The light provides a bare suggestion of a human presence in this landscape, emphasising again that unforgettable sense of solitude in Hasui’s compositions.

Source: David Bell, 'A new vision: modern Japanese prints from the Heriot collection', <em>Tuhinga</em>, 31 (2020), forthcoming.

Dr Mark Stocker    Curator, Historical International Art   May 2019