HASUI -- "Megaro Fudo Temple" (#11)

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Artist Hasui KAWASE (1883-1957)
Title "Megaro Fudo Temple"
("Megaro Fudo do")
Date 1931 (life-time edition)
Provenance Private placement. Consigned by family of Navy Hospital Corps servicewoman Verna Woodrich stationed in Yokohama/Tokyo 1947.
Series na
Publisher Watanabe Shozaburo
Seal, Carver/Printer Unsealed -- but known collected 1947, Tokyo.
(Hand-applied, occasionally omitted--not uncommon from Watanate Publisher.)
Image Size 9 1/2 x 14 1/4
Impression Very Fine. Skillfully executed "bokashi" shading to sky, trees, temple structures, stone areas, and foreground; light "gauffrage" (embossing) to cherry blossoms; baren "sujizuri" (circular tracings) to stairs; marvelously life-like shadowing; highly detailed carving.
Condition Excellent. Excellent colors. Very clean front and verso. (Light toning; otherwise flawless.) All prints within this 1947 collection have never been displayed -- stored flat past 71 years.
Reference/Illus Narazaki #322; Hotei #263.
Comments Delightful springtime temple image. Narazaki reports that this composition was designed with an interest in depicting the complex shadows seen cast upon the flagstones of the temple's path and steps. Interestingly, the "backwards swastika" symbol is actually the Japanese kanji for "temple."
From a 1947 Tokyo Japan military collection.
Item # SF-24
Price $950