Dusk at Itako (Itako no yu)
by Kawase Hasui
- Date:
- 1930
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; oban
- Format:
- Oban
- Publisher:
- Watanabe Shozaburo
- Edition:
- Published by Watanabe Shozaburo
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
by Kawase Hasui
Night views with moonlight and lantern effects carry a 20–30% premium over comparable daytime scenes. The dramatic tonal contrasts required for nocturnal subjects make impression quality especially important — fine examples from pre-war printings show a depth of color that later editions rarely match. Prints with well-preserved black areas and accurate moonlight bokashi command the highest prices. Pre-war lifetime editions bearing the Watanabe copyright seal (A through G types, 1926–1944) are the most desirable.
Dusk at Itako, published in 1930, depicts the canal town of Itako in the Suigo wetlands of Ibaraki Prefecture at dusk — the yu hour when the light on the water and iris canals shifts from afternoon gold to the deep blue of early evening, the town's fishing boats at their moorings and the willow-lined waterways beginning to lose their color in the gathering dark. The dusk subject at Itako captures the water town at its most transitional: between day's activity and night's stillness, between the color of sunset and the monochrome of darkness. The yu treatment gives Hasui's water-town subject its most atmospheric moment.
Woodblock print
Teradomari no yau
1921
Color woodblock print; oban
![Mount Fuji on a Moonlit Night, Kawai Bridge (Tsukiyo no Fuji [Kawaibashi]), from the series "Selection of Views of the Tokaido (Tokaido fukei senshu)" by Kawase Hasui](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/d0960668-1e73-339a-b182-fb995a54bff0/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
1947
Color woodblock print; oban
March 1933
Color woodblock print; oban
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Dusk at Itako (Itako no yu) was created by Kawase Hasui (川瀬巴水) in 1930.
Dusk at Itako (Itako no yu) was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1930).
Dusk at Itako (Itako no yu) depicts night scenes.
