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KAWASE HASUI
Senju Waterfall, Akame
Date: originally published in 1951 by Watanabe, this is a later edition printed from the original first edition wood blocks
Size: oban, with full margins, 10.625" X 15.5"
Condition: Fine, no flaws, uncirculated print, never framed
Impression: Fine, solid key lines, nice surface texture, tight registration
Color: Fine, deep saturated color and bleed through to verso
Documentation: Kawase Hasui: The Complete Woodblock Prints, Hotei, 2003
AKAME (red eyes) Shijyuhachi (48) Waterfalls were named after the legend which tells that the deity Fudo emerged riding on a cow with red eyes. There are 26 other waterfalls that have names such as Fudo, Ninai, Nunobiki, and many of these waterfalls are scattered over a stretch of about 4 kilometers in Akame Ravine lying in the upper reaches of the river flowing near the border with Nara Prefecture. This famous place came to be widely known in 1951 when it won first place among 100 selected cataracts as new sightseeing spots in Japan. In recent years, Akame Shijyuhachi Waterfalls in Nabari City has been selected from 100 selected famous waterfalls and from 100 selected invigorating forests, respectively. Every waterfall located the heart of the mountains changes its appearance over four seasons, and shows a variety of beautiful expressions. Particularly famous is the beauty of the ravine during the season of autumn colors. The highlight in winter is the ice cascade, a natural work of art created when the waterfall is frozen hard by the deep cold in the ravine. At the beginning of the hiking trail, there is the Japan Salamander Center where the breeding of giant salamanders can be observed. The giant salamander is a protected species in Japan.
ABOUT KAWASE HASUI
Kawase Hasui (1883 – 1957) was a Japanese woodblock print maker in the early 20th century. He and Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) are widely regarded as two of the greatest artists of the shin hanga style, and are known especially for their excellent landscape prints. During the forty years of his artistic career, Hasui worked closely with Watanabe Shozaburo (1885-1962), publisher and advocate of the shin hanga movement. His works became widely known in the West through American connoisseur Robert O. Muller (1911-2003). In 1956, he was named a Living National Treasure in Japan.
Hasui worked almost exclusively on landscape and townscape prints based on sketches he made in Tokyo and during travels around Japan. However, his prints are not merely meisho (famous places) prints that are typical of earlier ukiyo-e masters such as Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). Hasui’s prints feature locale that are tranquil and obscure in the then-urbanizing Japan. The dreamlike quality in Hasui’s prints epitomizes a yearning for the past and a preservation of the past in the midst of rapid modernization.
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