Kawase Hasui

Born with the name Bunjiro in Tokyo. As a child, Hasui learned to paint in Western style and his first teacher was Saburosuke Okada who taught him watercolor and oil painting. At the age of 26, Kawase tried to be accepted by the teacher Kiyokata Kaburagi but he considered Kawase to be too old. Kawase tried again two years later and was then accepted by Kiyokata who recognized the talents of his new student. He also introduced Kawase to Watanabe Shozaburo. Kawase produced more than 400 woodblock designs for Watanabe until his death in 1957.

Hasui was described as a small, short-sighted man who wore thick glasses. His life on the road was expensive and the artist almost never became rich but could get by on his printmaking. Hasui was described as a conservative, more retrograde personality. He preferred the kimono to a western suit and liked Japanese saki.

Kawase Hasui (Japanese, 1883-1957)

Kawase Hasui was the leading landscape artist of the shin hanga (new prints) movement. Heavily influenced by Hiroshige and a master of mood in his own right, Hasui depicted emotionally evocative landscapes that are almost iconic in their nature. His nightscapes are particularly notable.

Starry Night at Miwajima (1928) is among his most well-known woodblock prints. He returned to the imagery of his earlier, evocative print Misty Night at Miwajima (1921), which presented a conventional view of the shrine's marine shrine gate (torii). In Starry Night at Miwajima, Hasui enlarged and sharpened the torii to emphasize this traditional, widely recognized emblem of Japan.