東京二十景 「芝増上寺」 (Tōkyō nijūkei, Shiba Zōjōji)|The Temple Zōjōji in Shiba, from the series Twenty Views of Tokyo

Kawase Hasui 川瀬巴水

1925 (Taishō 14) · Woodblock print (vertical ōban); ink and color on paper · Asian Art

This print by Kawase Hasui depicts a lone woman, mostly hidden by her umbrella, walking through snow before a Buddhist temple. One of a series of prints of sites around the city of Tokyo designed by Kawase and published in the late 1920s, this image shows Zōjōji, a Pure Land temple located in the Shiba neighborhood of central Tokyo. The structure in the background is the temple’s main gate, the Sangedatsumon, which was constructed in 1622 and is today the oldest standing wooden building in the capital. Kawase was a leading figure of the early twentieth-century print movement known as Shin-hanga (literally, “new prints”), which focused on traditional techniques and subject matter.

Artist

Kawase Hasui 川瀬巴水

Date

1925 (Taishō 14)

Medium

Woodblock print (vertical ōban); ink and color on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Joan Kramer Holt, in memory of her parents, 1997