ASA (morning)
by Kusaka Kenji
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- wbp
Typical Price
$200–$1,500. Common prints: $200–$500. Key value factors: Kusaka's prints are modestly priced and accessible.
by Kusaka Kenji
$200–$1,500. Common prints: $200–$500. Key value factors: Kusaka's prints are modestly priced and accessible.
Titled ASA, the Japanese word for morning, this woodblock print captures the particular quality of early daylight as it transforms the landscape. Morning subjects in Japanese art carry associations with freshness, clarity, and the promise held in the day's first hours. Kusaka's treatment of the morning theme likely emphasizes the transitional light conditions, the subtle color shifts as darkness yields to dawn, that the woodblock medium handles with particular grace through graduated [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) printing. The stripped-down title suggests that the subject is the time of day itself rather than any specific location, inviting the viewer to attend to qualities of light and atmosphere rather than geographic identification. The print reflects the Japanese aesthetic tradition of finding profundity in ephemeral atmospheric moments.
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.
ASA (morning) was created by Kusaka Kenji (日下健二).
ASA (morning) depicts landscapes.
