Chusonji Temple (December, from the Calendar for the Pacific Transport Lines, 1953) by Kawase Hasui

Chusonji Temple (December, from the Calendar for the Pacific Transport Lines, 1953) by Kawase Hasui

Chusonji Temple (December, from the Calendar for the Pacific Transport Lines, 1953)

Kawase Hasui

Title

Chusonji Temple (December, from the Calendar for the Pacific Transport Lines, 1953)

 
Artist

Kawase Hasui

  1883 - 1957 (biography)
Year
1952  
Technique
color woodcut 
Image Size
9 9/16 x 14 3/8" image size 
Signature
"Hasui" signature with "Kawase" red seal, lower right; block signed with printed signature in Roman script in lower margin 
Edition Size
500 
Annotations
block titled in Roman script in lower left margin 
Reference
Hotei 587, illustrated on page 586 
Paper
ivory laid Japanese 
State
published 
Publisher
Pacific Transport Lines 
Inventory ID
JELI111 
Price
SOLD
Description

This image is used to illustrate the month of December in this series for the calendar. The Chusonji (Chuson) temple is in Hiraizumi in the southern Iwate prefecture. This work has not been reprinted after the initial edition of 500.

Also from the Hotei/Hasui catalogue raisonné, page 131:

"Narazaki explains that 500 examples of this calendar were commissioned by the Pacific transport lines for distribution in the United States and that it was created within the time-honored tradition of meisho-e (pictures of famous views). He adds that while Hasui did not ordinarily undertake this type of work, the artist seems to have become quite engrossed in this project in an effort to convey a sense of the quintessential Japanese landscape." and "Both the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo and Hasui attached importance to the fact that these compositions were intended as souvenirs for foreigners."

The title and the artist's signature are printed in English in the margin. This impression is still attached at the top to the original card from the calendar.