Evening Snowfall at Kiyomizu Temple (Kiyomizudera no bosetsu)
by Kawase Hasui
by Kawase Hasui
Snow at a shrine or temple — Hasui's single most valuable subject combination. Prints pairing winter precipitation with sacred architecture dominate the top of his price range: Snow at Zojoji Temple ($16,000 at Artelino, 2023), Snow at Tosho-gu Shrine ($3,200 at Artelino, 2020), Snow at a Shrine Entrance ($3,100 at Artelino, 2020), Saishoin Temple in the Snow ($3,000 at Artelino, 2023). Edition period is critical: pre-war lifetime editions consistently outperform posthumous prints by 3–5×. Postwar lifetime editions (1946–1957) bearing the small 6mm J-seal represent authentic lifetime impressions but from the artist's final decade.
Evening Snowfall at Kiyomizu Temple, published in 1950, depicts Kiyomizudera in Kyoto under falling evening snow — the temple's famous cantilevered wooden veranda visible through the veil of snow, the surrounding hillside trees white, the view of Kyoto below softened and obscured by the downfall. The bosetsu (evening snow) treatment of Kiyomizudera is one of Hasui's most contemplative Kyoto subjects, the temple's ancient structure receiving the snow with the same equanimity it has shown for fourteen centuries of Kyoto winters. The 1950 composition is among his most technically refined late-career treatments of this canonical subject.
Woodblock print
c. 1832/38
Color woodblock print; oban
Yuki no Miyajima
1929
Color woodblock print; oban
1932
Woodblock print
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Evening Snowfall at Kiyomizu Temple (Kiyomizudera no bosetsu) was created by Kawase Hasui (川瀬巴水) in 1950.
Evening Snowfall at Kiyomizu Temple (Kiyomizudera no bosetsu) uses Bokashi, on color woodblock print.
Evening Snowfall at Kiyomizu Temple (Kiyomizudera no bosetsu) was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1950).
Evening Snowfall at Kiyomizu Temple (Kiyomizudera no bosetsu) depicts snow scenes, temples & shrines, and night scenes.
