Kanetsuki Hall Bell Tower, Okayama (Okayama no Kanetsukido)

Date:: 1947
Medium:: Color woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Publisher:: Watanabe Shozaburo
Edition:: Published by Watanabe Shozaburo
Source:: Art Institute of Chicago

Typical Price

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. Postwar lifetime editions (1946–1957) bearing the small 6mm J-seal represent authentic lifetime impressions but from the artist's final decade.

Pre-war lifetime edition (Watanabe seal): $1,500–$5,000
Postwar lifetime edition (J-seal): $600–$2,000
Posthumous/Heisei edition: $250–$700

Description

Kanetsuki Bell Tower at Okayama, published in 1947, depicts the kanetsukido — the bell tower housing the large bronze temple bell — at one of Okayama's Buddhist temples, likely within the grounds of Sogenji or a similar historic temple in the castle town's precincts. The bell tower subject, with its ancient bronze bell hanging in a timber belfry frame, represents one of the most acoustically and visually evocative elements of Japanese Buddhist architecture, the large bell's patinated surface and the surrounding wooden structure carrying centuries of accumulated use. Hasui's 1947 composition likely captures the tower in the quiet morning or evening light associated with temple bell subjects.