Water and Shadow Paperback – 15 November 2014

Un testo fondamentale per avvicinarsi a questo artista ancora semi-sconosciuto in Italia e meritevole di ben altra attenzione editoriale da parte nostra...

The title really doesn't do this exquisite book justice, but I can not think of any words to adequately describe the beauty of Japanese art, created by Kawase Hasui with his unerring eye for landscapes.

Actually the editor is Kendall Brown, not James King, but the star is Hotei (the publisher) who does not gild the lily but lets us see Hasui's prints in true color balance, saturation, and contrast. The book is very big, but Hotei does not stretch any print across pages, nor is any print cropped. Hasui is the ne plus ultra of woodblock print technique. He mastered all of the areas that defeated Hiroshige: faces (especially noses), natural clouds, true reflections in water, and natural rainfall. Of course, art is not just technique, and you are entitled to prefer Hiroshige or others, but that does not detract from the wonder that is Hasui. The shortcoming of this book is the limited number of prints (all prints are pre-earthquake 1923, but Hasui was active into the 1950s). Visions of Japan (Hotei) contains many more prints (throughout Hasui's career), without cropping or spreading over pages, but Hotei did not resist cranking up saturation (color balance remains neutral). The collection called Kawase Hasui (in Japanese only) from Tokyo Fine Arts (Tokyo Bijutsu) has twice as many prints (or more), and shows the range of Hasui much better. Unfortunately, choice of which prints get full-page and which half-page (or less) is often based on subject matter rather than artistic worth. And the publisher often extends prints across pages, and even crops a few prints. Beyond that, saturation is increased and color balance is ratcheted toward red. I do not own the compendium from Abe (also Japanese only), which is also available on Amazon.

Hasui est un maître de l'estampe du siècle dernier, et son dessin est plus proche de l'esprit occidental que celui d'Hokusai ou d'Hiroshige, ce qui nous le rend plus familier. Il ne renie pourtant en rien la tradition de ces images du "monde flottant", ce qui rend surprenantes la présence de fils électriques, de voitures ou de lampadaires dans des décors qui nous semblent immuables depuis des siècles.

Great book, good info and well illustrated