Tadotsu, Sanuki Province (Sanshu Tadotsu), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen)"
by Kawase Hasui
by Kawase Hasui
Tadotsu, Sanuki Province (Sanshu Tadotsu), designed by Kawase Hasui in 1936 for the series Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen), is preserved at the Art Institute of Chicago. The woodblock print depicts Tadotsu, a port town on the Inland Sea coast of Shikoku that served as a gateway for pilgrims traveling to Kotohira Shrine. Kawase Hasui frames the harbor with low buildings and fishing boats, the masts and rigging breaking the line between water and sky while small figures move along the quay. The view typifies the artist's interest in working coastal communities rather than scenic monuments, and his ability to find pictorial structure in modest combinations of dock, boat, and warehouse. Issued under the imprint of publisher Watanabe Shozaburo, the print belongs to the [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga), or new prints, movement that Watanabe organized from the 1910s onward, pairing trained designers like Kawase Hasui with the carvers and printers of his Tokyo workshop. The Kansai Edition continued his strategy of producing large regional landscape series, in this case covering western Japan, the Inland Sea, and the Kansai heartland. For the Tadotsu sheet, the workshop's printers applied the soft graded skies, water reflections, and muted earth tones that became hallmarks of Hasui's mature style. Within the context of Watanabe Shozaburo's broader project of renewing Japanese woodblock printmaking for a modern audience, the Tadotsu print represents the shin-hanga ideal of disciplined craft applied to closely observed, regionally specific subjects.
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.
Tadotsu, Sanuki Province (Sanshu Tadotsu), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen)" was created by Kawase Hasui (川瀬巴水) in 1936.
Tadotsu, Sanuki Province (Sanshu Tadotsu), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen)" uses Bokashi, on color woodblock print; oban.
Tadotsu, Sanuki Province (Sanshu Tadotsu), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen)" depicts landscapes and famous places (meisho-e).
