Shinsui's extensive oeuvre spans bijin-ga, landscapes, and genre subjects. Auction averages over 12 months reflect healthy collector demand across all subject types.
A deep cave associated with religious ascetics is rendered in this 1937 landscape, the geological drama of the cavern entrance providing an unusual setting in Shinsui's output, which more often favored water, sky, and cultivated landscapes. Ascetics' caves—the retreat sites of yamabushi and other mountain practitioners—appeared occasionally in Edo-period landscape prints and Shinsui's treatment continues this tradition while filtering it through the [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) period's gentler, more atmospheric style.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Ascetics' Cave was created by Ito Shinsui (伊東深水) in 1937.
Ascetics' Cave was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1937).
Ascetics' Cave depicts landscapes, religious, and mountains.
Ascetics' Cave measures 27.3 × 39.9 cm (Oban format).
