The complete set of 12 calendar prints, commissioned by the Pacific Transport Lines in 1952

Set of twelve woodblock prints produced under commission from the Pacific Transport Lines, an American shipping company, in 1952. The series belongs to Hasui's late career — he was sixty-nine when the commission was undertaken, five years before his death in 1957 and four years before his print Snow at Zojoji Temple was designated an intangible cultural property by the Japanese government. The Pacific Transport calendar represents one of several corporate commissions Hasui accepted in the postwar period, when the recovery of the Japanese print market and renewed American interest in shin-hanga sustained his output. The twelve sheets each correspond to a month and depict landscape subjects drawn from across Japan — temple precincts, mountain villages, coastal inlets, and seasonal scenes spanning snow, blossom, summer rain, and autumn foliage. Production followed Hasui's standard division of labour, with carvers and printers cutting and pulling the blocks under his supervision. Calendar sets such as this one circulated outside conventional dealer channels, accounting for their dispersed survival in private collections.