SAWAYAKA (Refreshing)
Typical Price
$1,000–$6,000. Common subjects: $1,000–$2,000. Key value factors: Nishijima's nostalgic Japanese village scenes appeal to collectors worldwide. Limited editions maintain value well.
Description
"Sawayaka" — refreshing, with connotations of a cool, clear quality after heaviness or heat — evokes the particular pleasure of a bright morning after summer's oppressive humidity, or the first clear autumn day. Nishijima renders a traditional architectural scene in this refreshed atmospheric condition: the colors clear and slightly heightened, the air apparently transparent, the familiar surfaces of timber and tile newly vivid in the clean light. His use of a single-word atmospheric title to frame an architectural composition demonstrates his interest in the mood rather than the fact of his subjects.
More Prints by Katsuyuki Nishijima
More Urban Scenes Prints
A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo: Kiyonaga's Pipe (Edo zumi hyaku shoku: Kiyonaga no kiseru)
Woodblock print
View of Kabuki Theater from Matsuya (Ginza Matsuya yori Kabukiza), no. 3 from the series "Pictures of Ginza, First Series (Gashu Ginza dai isshu)"
1928
Color lithograph
Distant View of Mitsukoshi Movie Theater in Shinjuku from the Sixth Floor of Hoteiya (Hoteiya rokkai kara Shinjuku Mitsukoshi Musashi no kan enbo zu), no. 1 from the series "Scenery of Shinjuku (Gashu Shinjuku fukei)"
1930
Color lithograph
Spring Dusk at the Tōshō Shrine in Ueno
1948
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Frequently Asked Questions
SAWAYAKA (Refreshing) was created by Katsuyuki Nishijima (西島勝之).
SAWAYAKA (Refreshing) depicts urban scenes, architecture, and summer.