Tokyo Station

Medium:: Woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Publisher:: Watanabe Shozaburo
Edition:: Published by Watanabe Shozaburo
Source:: ukiyo-e.org

Typical Price

Tokyo Station's distinctive red-brick facade is rendered here as a modern landmark through the shin-hanga lens. Watanabe lifetime editions sell for $1,000-$2,500. As one of Kasamatsu's more explicitly modern subjects, this print bridges traditional woodblock aesthetics and twentieth-century urban architecture, appealing to collectors interested in how shin-hanga artists engaged with modernization.

Description

Tokyo Station's distinctive red-brick Marunouchi facade — a symbol of Meiji modernization built in 1914 and designed by Tatsuno Kingo — appears as an architectural subject documenting the Western-style civic monumentalism of the early twentieth century. Kasamatsu's documentation of Tokyo Station belongs to his broader interest in the layered architectural character of modern Tokyo, where Western-style buildings sat in proximity to traditional forms without resolving into a coherent style. The station's European Renaissance facade represented an aspiration toward modern national identity.