Hasui 巴水: Sengaku Temple 泉岳寺

Artist: Kawase Hasui 川瀬巴水 (1883-1957) Title: Sengaku Temple 泉岳寺 Date: 1931 (This edition is postwar) Series: Selected Views of the Tokaido Road (Tokaido fukei senshu) It is evening and a woman walks towards the entrance gate to Sengaku Temple, a small child on her back. We see a few yellow window lights, and the pines that frame the entrance. With the round, postwar Watanabe seal that was in use between 1945-1957. Narazaki wrote: “A solitary twinkling star in the sky at night descends on the Sengaku Temple. The single figure of a woman looking after a child and the scattered lights emphasize the loneliness of the temple precinct.” Sengakuji, which is near Shinagawa Station in Tokyo, is famously the final resting place for the 47 Rônin (Akogishi Kinenkan). Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition. Dimensions: ôban (38.7 x 26.2 cm) Publisher: Watanabe Shôzaburô Literature: See MFA, AIC, Kendall H. Brown, Kawase Hasui: The Complete Woodblock Prints, 2003, p. 397, no. 216. Kendall H. Brown, Visions of Japan: Kawase Hasui's Masterpieces, 2008, p. 77, no. 41. Kawase Hasui Woodblock Prints, Abe Publishing, 2009, p. 99, no. 154. Seal: Kawase Signature: Hasui