Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) | Lake Kugushi in Wakasa Province (Wakasa Kugushi-ko) | Taisho period, early 20th century

Hasui first began his first Souvenirs of Travel (Tabi no miyage) series in 1919. Issued by his publisher, Watanabe Shozaburo (1885-1962), one or two at a time, the series comprised a total sixteen prints. The success of the series led to subsequent iterations. Helen Merritt notes the features of these landscapes compared to earlier ukiyo-e woodblock prints: 'Their colours are more sonorous and their textures more dense than colours and textures in Hiroshige prints. Hasui thought of himself as a realist and employed his knowledge of Western means of representation. His buildings have a certain objectivity and solidity. They reflect light and cast shadows. His sky is free of the cartouches and titles that were standard features of ukiyo-e prints’.¹ 

Here, the silhouette of a solitary figure can be see standing at the edge of a promontory on a farmstead. The reddening of leaves touching the canopies of some of the trees corresponds to the dating shoshu, or early autumn. The sun appears to be setting; the mountainside darkening to blue as evening approaches. 

A similar impression of the same print is in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, accession number S2003.8.588, go to: 

https://asia-archive.si.edu/object/S2003.8.588/ 

A further impression (without publisher’s circular seal) is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 54.1033, go to:  

https://collections.mfa.org/objects/257610 

1. Helen Merritt, Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: The Early Years, (Honolulu, 1990), p. 54-55.