View from Hill

Date:: 1926
Medium:: Woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Publisher:: Watanabe Shozaburo

Edition:

Published by Watanabe Shozaburo

Source:

Typical Price

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.

Pre-war lifetime edition (Watanabe seal, 1926–1944): $1,000–$4,000
Postwar lifetime edition (J-seal, 1946–1957): $400–$1,500
Posthumous/Heisei edition (seal K/I, 1957–present): $150–$600

Description

View from Hill — a generic title suggesting a panoramic vantage from an unnamed elevation — captures the characteristic landscape of a 1926 location seen from a hillside viewpoint, the town, valley, or coast below rendered in Hasui's standard horizontal composition. The Landscapes and Bokashi tags indicate a straightforward landscape view with atmospheric gradation in the sky. Without a specific location name, the print likely served as a broadly representative rural Japan view rather than a documented site.