Customer Reviews

Visions of Japan

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As art books go, this one gets it just about perfect. 100 of Kawase Hasui's prints, arranged in chronological order and finely reproduced with great care in full color and as large as the book's format will allow (the format being large enough to show off the prints to advantage without being unwieldy to hold and peruse). The text at the beginning by Kendall Brown is informative and helpful in better appreciating the prints, placing them within the context of the larger Shin-Hanga ("New Print") movement of the 20th century and tentatively explicating an aesthetics for this underappreciated art form--derided as it was (and is) by modernist artists and art critics for whom lyrical beauty and sentiment in art are passe and collaboration with engravers and publishers a damning compromise of principle. Brown goes on to focus more specifically on the life of the artist himself, his methods and practices, and his overall artistic development over the years. I especially liked how he was able to address issues of nostalgia, invented tradition, and cultural nationalism in Kawase's works without being reductive, politically trenchant, or dismissive of intrinsic artistic value.

And these prints definitely have the latter. Kawase is a master of evoking the quiet, tranquil moods of dusky twilight and drifting snow, of rainy days and moonlit nights. Both his rural and urban landscapes are imbued with these qualities, and places both famous and anonymous seem to shimmer with moods and resonances of an archetypal Japan you always wanted to visit but found only fleetingly when you actually went there--and in this too there is a subdued hint of something more universal and eternal still. And yet on a more down-to-earth level these are very accessible, nice scenic pictures that look great on calendars, postcards, and computer desktops. Esoteric and humble at the same time. But is it art? Close enough for me, anyway.

My wife and I were very pleased with this book. The commentary was interesting and the numerous photos were of decent quality. A lot better than paying the $400 for the complete book by Brown. A nice book if you like Hasui and are on a normal budget.

One hundred woodblock prints of the 20th-century Japanese artist Hasui are cataloged in bright colors on large pages roughly 9" x 11". Captions for the hundred are grouped following the prints. With annotations which are comments by Hasui on the particular print or informative remarks by Narazaki Munishige, editor of a book on the artist's prints, the captions are instructive. Instructive too are two introductory essays by Kendall H. Brown. The first is on the Japanese cultural sources of Hasui's prints; the second focuses on Hasui's life and art. The succinct text with the appealing pictures of numerous prints offers an ideal introduction to and sampling of the woodblock prints by this outstanding Japanese artist who is regarded as one of the primary artists of the 20th-century Japanese art movement known as "New prints" (Shin-hanga).

I bought this book from Amazon.con after seeing posters of his prints (The Pagoda in Moonlight and the Benton Shrine over a lillies pond).

I also saw his framed woodblock prints in Japantown in San Francisco. Very rich colors. Stunning, comparing to his posters and calendars. Only a few hundred $$$. Buy me one of those for Xmas, please.

Check them out when you are in San Francisco.

When I think about a master of quality in Japanese printmaking a few artists immediately come to mind: Hiroshi Yoshida, Paul Jacoulet, and Kawase Hasui. This little paperback book is jam packed full of color woodblock prints,...page after page of an artists masterful works. If you are not fond of landscapes this is not for you, but if you enjoy Japanese printmaking, this book is an absolute must. The simple compositions, the colorful gradations, and the mastery in image, carving and printmaking comes through on every page. GET IT NOW!!!