Tōshōgū in Ueno
by Kawase Hasui
- Date:
- 1930s
- Medium:
- Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
- Format:
- Oban
- Dimensions:
- 35.2 × 18.5 cm
- Publisher:
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.
Tosho-gu in Ueno, dated to the 1930s, depicts the Ueno Tosho-gu shrine — one of Tokyo's finest surviving examples of Gongen-zukuri (shrine-temple) architecture, with its carved wooden details, gilded ornaments, and thousands of bronze and stone lanterns donated by daimyo — in the atmospheric light of the Ueno park surroundings. The shrine's path through the cherry-tree precincts of Ueno hill, lined with lanterns and ending at the ornate karamon (Chinese-style gate), gave Hasui a subject of great decorative richness. The undated 1930s attribution places this alongside his other Ueno park subjects from that decade.
Woodblock print
1928
Color lithograph
1930
Color lithograph
1948
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Tōshōgū in Ueno was created by Kawase Hasui (川瀬巴水) in 1930s.
Tōshōgū in Ueno was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1930s).
Tōshōgū in Ueno depicts urban scenes, set at Ueno.
Tōshōgū in Ueno measures 35.2 × 18.5 cm (Oban format).
