Morning at Cape Inubo (Inubo no asa)

Date:: November 1931
Medium:: Color woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Publisher:: Watanabe Shozaburo
Edition:: Published by Watanabe Shozaburo
Source:: Art Institute of Chicago

Typical Price

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.

Pre-war lifetime edition (Watanabe seal, 1926–1944): $1,000–$4,000
Postwar lifetime edition (J-seal, 1946–1957): $400–$1,500
Posthumous/Heisei edition (seal K/I, 1957–present): $150–$600

Description

Cape Inubo (Inubosaki) on the northeastern tip of the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture is where Tokyo Bay meets the open Pacific, the lighthouse on its headland marking one of Japan's busiest shipping lanes. Morning here in November 1931 would have shown the dawn light over a grey Pacific with the lighthouse silhouetted above the cliffs. The Inubo no asa (morning at Inubo) title specifies the early-hour condition — the light just building, the sea still dark, the lighthouse beam perhaps still visible.