Yakuo Temple, Mito (Mito Yakuoin)
by Kawase Hasui
- Date:
- 1945
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Publisher:
by Kawase Hasui
Temple and shrine subjects form the backbone of Hasui's rural Japan repertoire — steady, consistently popular categories that hold value across all market conditions. Snow at temple subjects command the highest premiums (Snow at Tosho-gu Shrine in Ueno achieved $3,200 at Artelino; Saishoin Temple in the Snow reached $3,000). Standard pre-war temple scenes without snow trade between $1,000–$3,500. Postwar lifetime editions (1946–1957) bearing the small 6mm J-seal represent authentic lifetime impressions but from the artist's final decade.
Yakuo Temple at Mito, published in 1945, depicts Yakuoin — a Buddhist temple in Mito city, Ibaraki Prefecture — likely one of the historic temple complexes on the hillside below the old castle site that retained their Edo-period architecture. Mito's temple district, spared the worst of wartime bombing, preserved clusters of traditional Buddhist architecture in the castle town's precincts. The 1945 wartime date gives this temple subject a particular gravity: the preservation of sacred architecture even as the surrounding urban landscape faced destruction. The Temples & Shrines and [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) tags indicate a composition of atmospheric depth.
伏見稲荷
Woodblock print
c. 1832/38
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
Uji Byodoin no ichibu
1921
Color woodblock print; oban
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Yakuo Temple, Mito (Mito Yakuoin) was created by Kawase Hasui (川瀬巴水) in 1945.
Yakuo Temple, Mito (Mito Yakuoin) uses Bokashi, on color woodblock print.
Yakuo Temple, Mito (Mito Yakuoin) was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1945).
Yakuo Temple, Mito (Mito Yakuoin) depicts temples & shrines.
