Pier at Otaru (Otaru no hatoba), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan, Eastern Japan Edition (Nihon fukei shu higashi Nihon hen)"
by Kawase Hasui
by Kawase Hasui
Pier at Otaru (Otaru no hatoba), from Kawase Hasui's Collection of Views of Japan, Eastern Japan Edition (Nihon fukei shu higashi Nihon hen) of 1933, depicts a stretch of waterfront at Otaru on the western coast of Hokkaido. Otaru had grown rapidly from the late nineteenth century as a port for the herring trade and as a gateway for goods moving between Hokkaido and Honshu, and by Hasui's visit it was a notable example of modern Japanese port architecture, with concrete and timber pier structures lining the harbor. Hasui composes the scene from a low vantage near the water, organizing the print around the long axis of the pier and the working vessels along it. The print was produced in publisher Watanabe Shozaburo's Tokyo workshop, where the carvers managed the multiple registered blocks required for the saturated colors of hulls and warehouses and the cooler tones of water and sky. The Art Institute of Chicago, which preserves this impression, contextualizes the print within Hasui's 1933 Hokkaido and Tohoku campaigns, when he traveled extensively in northern Japan to gather material for the Eastern Japan Edition. The series expanded the [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) geography to include port towns, fishing harbors, and industrial waterfronts, places not traditionally associated with the famous-place tradition of [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e). Pier at Otaru exemplifies Hasui's interest in working landscapes and quiet harbor light, and it preserves a visual record of a regional commercial center at a particular moment in early Shōwa-era Japan, executed entirely through the multi-block woodblock techniques sustained by the shin-hanga workshop tradition.
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.
Pier at Otaru (Otaru no hatoba), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan, Eastern Japan Edition (Nihon fukei shu higashi Nihon hen)" was created by Kawase Hasui (川瀬巴水) in 1933.
Pier at Otaru (Otaru no hatoba), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan, Eastern Japan Edition (Nihon fukei shu higashi Nihon hen)" uses Bokashi, on color woodblock print; oban.
Pier at Otaru (Otaru no hatoba), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan, Eastern Japan Edition (Nihon fukei shu higashi Nihon hen)" depicts landscapes and famous places (meisho-e).
