Matoba, Takehara (Takehara Matoba (Hiroshima ken))
by Kawase Hasui
by Kawase Hasui
Edition period is the primary value driver for Hasui prints. Pre-war lifetime editions with the Watanabe copyright seal (A through D types) consistently achieve 3–5× the price of posthumous reprints of the same design. Condition is the second key factor — unfaded colors, full margins, and absence of foxing or staining are essential. Subject matter (snow > rain > night > other) provides a further modifier within each edition tier. This postwar design (1946–1957) bears the small 6mm J-seal on lifetime impressions — authentic but from the artist's final decade, when block quality had declined from peak period.
Matoba at Takehara in Hiroshima Prefecture, published in 1948, depicts a district of Takehara city on the Seto Inland Sea coast of Hiroshima — a port town known for its preserved Edo-period merchant townhouse district (one of Japan's best-preserved) and for the salt industry that made it prosperous. Takehara's Matoba area likely captures the historic commercial district with its traditional machiya streetscape and the peaceful Inland Sea visible beyond. The 1948 date, just three years after Hiroshima's destruction, gives this documentation of a nearby Inland Sea town a quietly restorative quality.
Woodblock print
1928
Color lithograph
1930
Color lithograph
1948
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Matoba, Takehara (Takehara Matoba (Hiroshima ken)) was created by Kawase Hasui (川瀬巴水) in 1948.
Matoba, Takehara (Takehara Matoba (Hiroshima ken)) was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1948).
Matoba, Takehara (Takehara Matoba (Hiroshima ken)) depicts urban scenes, seascapes, and architecture, set at Hiroshima.
