Morning in Nishibira, Izu (Izu Nishibira no asa)
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.
Nishibira is a village on the Izu Peninsula's interior highlands, and morning here in this 1953 print would show the Amagi mountain range above mist-filled valleys, with farm buildings partially emerging from the early-morning haze. The Izu interior had a quieter, more rural character than the peninsula's Pacific coast resort towns, and Hasui's morning view captures a landscape most visitors to Izu never sought out. The mountain mist and early light are rendered through careful [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradation.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Morning in Nishibira, Izu (Izu Nishibira no asa) was created by Kawase Hasui (川瀬巴水) in 1953.
Morning in Nishibira, Izu (Izu Nishibira no asa) was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1953).
Morning in Nishibira, Izu (Izu Nishibira no asa) depicts landscapes, mountains, and village scenes.
