Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) | Beach Hut at Himi in Etchu Province (Hama sho’oku, Etchu Himi) | Taisho period, early 20th century

A visitor under the shelter of a parasol approaches a beachside hut where craftsmen are making jute ropes. There is a light shower of rain and large swathes of cumulonimbus extend over the dark sky. In the distance, two boats drift past a small verdant island. The old fishing town of Himi is located in western Toyama Prefecture, the former Etchu Province.  

Hasui first began to design prints when he offered to work with the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo (1885-1962). He was inspired by his younger contemporary Ito Shinsui (1898-1972), who had earlier collaborated with Watanabe to revive the woodblock landscape genre with his series Eight Views of Omi (Omi hakkei) in 1917. Hasui and Watanabe’s collaboration begun with the set Twelve Tokyo Subjects (Tokyo junidai, 1919-1921). The series ushered a new age of the ukiyo-e landscape which often took the capital of Edo, now Tokyo, as its muse. His series Souvenirs of Travel (Tabi no miyage) also began in the same year, focusing on countryside subjects. After the Great Kanto Earthquake and fire of September 1923, Hasui’s large corpus with Watanabe turned primarily towards the provinces, as much that was celebrated in Tokyo for its beauty was rendered destroyed by the tremors of the quake. 

A similar impression of the same print is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 42.277, go to: https://collections.mfa.org/objects/251828 

A further impression of the same print is in the collection of the Edo Tokyo Museum, collection ID 94203186, go to:  https://museumcollection.tokyo/en/works/6253388/