Modern Japanese woodblock prints have an indelible link to the seasons. The perfect expression of these transitory moments in nature were much sought after and employed to poignant effect.
Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950) | Spring in a Hot Spring (Onsen no haru) | Showa period, 20th century.
Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950) | In a Temple Yard (Shoro) | Showa period, 20th century.
Spring 春
Spring is almost always signalled by cherry trees in blossom. Yoshida Hiroshi’s playfully titled Spring in a Hot Spring makes use of the double meaning of the word spring in the English language. The closely cropped composition is dominated by the large bowing branch of cherry framing the scene. In a Temple Yard captures the season after rainfall: the blossoms are wet and laden with moisture, reflected in the puddles of water below. Yoshida’s own interpretation of the season is captured by his use of overprinted rich mineral pigments to render the spring season saturated by the light of water.
Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) | Nara | Showa period, 20th century.
Tsuchiya Koitsu (1870-1949) | Willow Tree Bridge (Yanagibashi) | Showa period, 20th century.
Summer 夏
You can almost feel the heat in Hasui’s Nara, realised in bright greens and sky blues. A woman and a young girl carry parasols to shelter themselves from the great heat of Japan’s summers. Oftentimes night scenes depicting revelers also allude to the summer months, where the evenings are warm enough to enjoy the cool air on pleasure boats or riverside teahouses and restaurants, as in Tsuchiya Koitsu’s Willow Tree Bridge.
Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) | Late autumn rain, Nanzenji Temple in Kyoto (Shigure no ato, Kyoto Nanzenji) | Showa period, 20th century.
Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) | Asama Shrine in Shizuoka (Shizuoka Asama jinja) | Showa period, 20th century.
Autumn 秋
The word koyo, or reddening leaves, is perhaps the byword for autumn in Japan. In both prints above, crimson coloured maple trees (momiji) are shown in transition from their green to red hues.
Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) | The hamlet of Hataori in Shiobara (Shiobara Hataori) | Showa period, 20th century.
Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) | Snow at Mukojima (Yuki no Mukojima) | Showa period, 20th century.
Winter 冬
Kawase Hasui came to be known as the ‘Master of Snow’ for his art in depicting the snowscape. Blizzards falling over provincial townscapes, as in the The Hamlet of Hataori in Shiobara, or the almost pointillistic rendition of Snow at Mukojima, are just two examples of the artist’s approach to picturing endless expressions of snow. As in earlier ukiyo-e snow scenes, or yukigeshiki, snowscapes gave the printer and artist a chance to relish in the use of rich blue pigment against the white of the paper to evocative effect.
Source: Sotheby’s