The Artworks of Hasui Kawase (1883-1957)

1 Mar

Hasui was part of the Shin Hanga (New Prints) movement. It was started by a printer called Watanabe who was sick of reprinting old Ukioe prints from the Edo period like the classic Hokusai great wave and similar. They still had all the old printing blocks to do this, but he thought it could be fun to make some new art. The only people that bought them were tourists, so why not make them more European looking with linear perspective and other more modern art techniques, but retain the romanticised Japanese subject matter.

The prints are made by a team: Artist, block cutter and printer. The roles remind me of classic animation roles: Key animator, in-betweener, ink and paint.

I love this art. It's exactly the product of two cultures coming into contact with each other. A sort of cross pollination that must have influences so much modern animation.

The look like stills from a Studio Gibli film. A moment of breath frozen in time.