A yellow umbrella on a rain-lit street after dark

A wet post-town street at night, printed in deep blue-greens. Rain falls in fine lines and the road throws the light back in long vertical reflections. A woman in a dark blue kimono carries a child in a pink jacket on her back under a yellow umbrella at the centre, and two windows glow warm yellow further down the street. Timber inn buildings with tiled roofs and stone retaining walls close both sides, with pale cloud showing in the dark sky above.

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.