Morning at Okayama Castle (Okayamajo no asa)
by Kawase Hasui
- Date:
- 1955
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Publisher:
- Watanabe Shozaburo
- Edition:
- Published by Watanabe Shozaburo
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
by Kawase Hasui
Castle subjects by Hasui draw collectors interested in historic Japanese architecture. Himeji Castle, as Japan's most celebrated surviving original structure, consistently performs well — lifetime editions bring $800–$3,000. Seasonal variants (cherry blossoms, snow) of castle subjects command premiums over plain architectural views. Postwar lifetime editions (1946–1957) bearing the small 6mm J-seal represent authentic lifetime impressions but from the artist's final decade.
Okayama Castle, known as Ujo (Crow Castle) for its black lacquered exterior — one of only a handful of original black-walled castles surviving in Japan — presents a striking architectural subject against the morning sky. This 1955 print shows the castle in morning light, the dark keep reflected in the Asahi River that flows beside it. The castle's black-and-white contrast against sky and water gave Hasui a compositional challenge quite different from the white-walled castles of Himeji or the stone-ruin subjects he more frequently depicted.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Morning at Okayama Castle (Okayamajo no asa) was created by Kawase Hasui (川瀬巴水) in 1955.
Morning at Okayama Castle (Okayamajo no asa) was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1955).
Morning at Okayama Castle (Okayamajo no asa) depicts castles.
