Two children race up shrine steps beneath towering cedars

A stone torii hung with a thick straw rope stands beneath towering dark cedars, patches of blue sky and white cloud showing through the canopy. A stone stairway climbs past it to the shrine gate, and a carved stone marker stands at the right. Two children run up the lower steps, one in a blue polka-dot kimono and one in white and blue, their legs bare. Sunlight falls in patches of orange-tan across the ground, a stone bridge and low stone walls fill the foreground, and green trees close the right.

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.