Wind in the Forest (Kaze aru hayashi)
- Date:
- 1959
- Medium:
- Woodblock print; edition 5/30
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
$500–$4,000. Common prints: $500–$1,500. Key value factors: Sasajima's meditative prints appeal to collectors of both Japanese prints and modern art.
Produced in 1959 in an edition of thirty, this woodblock print captures the sensation of wind moving through a forest, a subject that tests the printmaker's ability to convey invisible force through visible effect. The trees become instruments of the wind's passage, their trunks rigid while their canopies bend and sway. Sasajima's carved lines must suggest both the solidity of the trees and the fluid movement of air among them, a tension between permanence and transience that aligns with Buddhist philosophical concerns. The Japanese title "Kaze aru hayashi" literally translates as "forest where there is wind," a characteristically understated description. The limited edition of thirty prints indicates a relatively small run, consistent with the sosaku-hanga practice where the artist-printer personally pulled each impression.
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.
Wind in the Forest (Kaze aru hayashi) was created by Kihei Sasajima (笹島喜平) in 1959.
Wind in the Forest (Kaze aru hayashi) depicts landscapes and trees.
