A rainbow rises over a fishing village on a wet, bright morning

A rainbow lifts from behind green hills into a pale blue sky with white clouds. Below it a fishing village of dark timber houses and sheds crowds the street, tall bare masts and poles standing among the roofs. The road is wet and holds the sky, and a woman in blue with a white headscarf walks it carrying two baskets on a shoulder pole, a woman in pink and a child further along. Bundles of pale yellow straw lie in rows along the roadside, and a stone embankment edges the foreground.

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.