Autumn

A woodblock print in Hasui's mature landscape style, this work presents an autumn scene likely composed during one of the artist's extensive sketching journeys throughout Japan. Hasui made hundreds of location sketches in watercolor, returning to the studio to refine compositions before transferring designs to block. In autumn prints of this type, the artist frequently employed a limited but carefully chosen set of color blocks—often five to ten separate key and color blocks—to build layered foliage effects that suggest depth through overlapping planes of warm and cool tonality. The washi paper used by the Watanabe publishing house, typically a handmade Japanese mulberry paper, absorbs water-based pigments in ways that contribute to the soft, absorbed quality of color so central to Hasui's aesthetic. Bokashi gradation on the sky block was a standard technique, allowing printers to blend from one hue to another without hard transitions. The resulting print conveys seasonal atmosphere rather than sharp documentary detail.