Bare black trees frame a castle keep in the pale light of morning

Bare trees with black trunks and branches stand across the foreground and fill the top of the sheet with their fine twigs. Through them the tiered keep of a castle rises on its mound, printed in pale grey-white and peach against a morning sky that grades from yellow at the horizon through peach to pale blue. A strip of pale water lies below the castle, low pines and shrubs grow at the foot of the trees, and a touch of pink autumn foliage shows at the left.

Kawase Hasui (1883–1957) was the defining landscape artist of shin-hanga, the movement that carried Japanese woodblock printing into the twentieth century. From 1918 he worked with the publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō, travelling almost continuously through Japan and turning roadside sketches into prints of unusual atmospheric precision. Snow, rain and failing light were his real subjects, as much as any temple or harbour. In 1956 Japan recognised his woodblock technique as an Intangible Cultural Property. His prints are held by the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Printed as a museum-grade giclée on Hahnemühle fine art paper using 12-ink archival pigment printing. Available handframed in FSC-certified wood with optional float glass, or unframed. Ships worldwide with free delivery to 30+ countries.