Kawase Hasui Giclée Repro Kamakura Myohonji Temple Spring Crabapple Flowers 1931 Framed 16x20

Kawase Hasui (川瀬巴水, 1883–1957) — Kamakura Myōhonji (鎌倉妙本寺 — Myōhonji Temple, Kamakura) — archival giclee reproduction

Contemporary reproduction after original woodblock print, 1931; publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō

This giclees is ready-to-hang, matted with custom-cut matting and framed in a simple black wood frame with glass, overall 16" W × 20" H. This reproduction is locally and professionally printed on acid-free archival fine-art paper using highly fade-resistant pigmented inks. 

Viewed from the shade of the sanmon gate, Myōhonji's main gate blazes with crabapple blossoms (kaido, 海棠) in full spring flower. Sunlight rakes across the temple's stone-paved precinct; two or three figures move unhurried through the scene. A bronze lantern occupies the left middle ground. Beyond the gate, more kaido and dark pines press in, and the vermilion of the inner gate glows through the green. The composition is a characteristic Hasui device — framing a sunlit distance through a shadowed architectural foreground — producing both depth and the mood of quiet ceremony. The left margin inscription reads 鎌倉妙本寺 (Kamakura Myōhonji) with the date 昭和六年四月 (Shōwa 6, April 1931); Hasui's signature and seal appear lower right.

Kawase Hasui (川瀬巴水, 1883–1957) was born in Tokyo and trained in traditional nihonga painting before turning to woodblock design under Kaburagi Kiyokata. His first shin hanga prints were published by Watanabe Shōzaburō in 1918, launching a collaboration that defined his career. An inveterate traveler, Hasui sketched throughout Japan and produced more than 600 landscape designs over four decades. The Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 destroyed many of his blocks and sketches, but he continued without pause. In 1956 he was designated a Living National Treasure — the only woodblock print designer to receive the honor. Myōhonji, a Nichiren-sect temple founded in 1260 in Kamakura, is celebrated for its kaido crabapple trees and was a subject Hasui returned to repeatedly. This design, published by Watanabe in the oban tate-e format, is among his finest spring compositions.

• Title: 鎌倉妙本寺 (Kamakura Myōhonji — Myōhonji Temple, Kamakura)
• Artist: Kawase Hasui (川瀬巴水, 1883–1957)
• Original date: April 1931 (Shōwa 6); publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō
• Medium: Archival giclee reproduction on acid-free fine-art paper, pigmented inks
• Dimensions: 10" W × 15" H (25 × 38 cm)

Condition: New gilcee reproduction print