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 Kawase Hasui (1883-1957)
Kawase Hasui, a Japanese woodblock printmaker, worked in the early 20th century in the Shin Hanga style, which he mastered in his great landscape prints. Especially talented in painting snow, Hasui s landscape and townscape prints became very popular in the West and today he is one of the best-known New Print movement artists.
Hasui s works are reminiscent of the earlier ukiyo-e masters, such as Kastsushika Hokusai. But prints such as Moon at Magome and Winter at Arashiyama are also tranquil and obscure depictions of locations in Japan that had remained untainted by urban sprawl. Hasui s prints, such as Pagoda in the Moonlight, possess a dreamlike quality that epitomizes a desire to remain in the past despite the chaos of modernization.
In 1956, Hasui was named a living national treasure in Japan. In his lifetime, Hasui had created over 600 prints.
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