Title : Rain in Maekawa, Söshü

Artist : Kawase Hasui

Date : 1932

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Source : Honolulu Museum of Art
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Description : Söshü is present-day Kanagawa Prefecture. The array of traditional thatched-roof houses along the street, the shadows of large pine trees, a person walking with an umbrella, and the straight lines of rain produce a sense of tranquility as well as the nostalgia reminiscent of some work by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), an ukiyo-e designer of the late Edo period. Watanabe was influential in promoting Hiroshige’s work, and held an important retrospective on the sixtieth anniversary of the artist’s death in 1918. Not surprisingly, Hasui’s compositions are often reminiscent of Hiroshige, but in this case the reference to the earlier artist is almost obligatory, since prints depicting the Tökaidö were popularized by Hiroshige, beginning with his first series of the fifty-three stations along the road in the 1830s. (“Picturesque Prints: Traditional Japanese Woodblock Art in the 20th Century” 05/27/2010 - 08/1/2010)

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