Kawase, Night: Three Contemplative Scenes by Hasui Kawase

Hasui Kawase 川瀬 巴水, Dusk at Ushibori (Ushibori no yugure), 1930, Color woodblock print, oban tate-e, 17 1/16 × 11 13/16 in. Art Institute of Chicago

Hasui Kawase is one of those gripping artists with a sharply unique perspective. His landscapes have a je ne sais quoi which sparks instant recognition of the scene as Kawase’s perspective.

Rendered from a three-dimensional, Western perspective, Kawase’s landscapes stand out for their innovative depth of field. Every landscape scene seems to recede expansively towards the background.

While many of his scenes have that wondrous, contemplative quality of expanse, Kawase’s nightscapes seem to have an almost transcendent, dreamy quality which makes them ideal subjects for meditation. Dusk at Ushibori, for instance, is both calmly contemplative and introspectively dynamic; one can almost feel the chill in the air as dusk sets in the horizon. Gradations of color are soft and subtle, conveying water body’s crystalline reflection. Kawase, who was encouraged early in his career by Nihonga master Kiyokata Kaburagi to study western art, honed his western influences in both perspective and stylistic device. Soft ripples briskly swerve over the lake’s surface with the classic, elongated style of Impressionistic brushwork.

Hasui Kawase 川瀬 巴水, Kozu, Osaka, 1924, Woodblock print (shin-hanga), 15 3/8 x 10 1/8 in. Source: Collecting Japanese Prints

In Kozu, Osaka, Kawase, one of the main exponents of the shin-hanga or “new prints” movement, deftly conveyed the subtle beauty of a modern landscape while evoking nostalgia for times past. The last esters of dusk converge into the darker hues of the night sky in a middle range of elongated brushstrokes, impressionistic in character. Details such as the tree shadow deftly leaping over the shrine’s ground heighten the sensory elements of the scene.

Hasui Kawase 川瀬 巴水, Starlit Night at Miyajima (Hoshizukiyo [Miyajima]), from the series Souvenirs of Travel, Third Series (Tabi miyage dai sanshu), 1928, Color woodblock print, oban tate-e. Art Institute of Chicago

That ethereal sense of the liminal is wondrously present in Kawase’s Starlit Night at Miyajima (1928). Kawase seems to have experienced his own version of a “Blue Period” throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, since many of his scenes take place at night. Starlit Night at Miyajima seems to be the crowning piece in this trend of chilly nightscapes—made the more wonderful by the appearance of starry sky. While only four stars are visible from our vantage point, the richness of detail in the tree’s branches, against the overall tonal twilight of the plane emphasize the mystique and wonder of the night sky as an archetype of universal contemplation.

Now Playing: Check out this “soundtrack” of hazy liminal beats while you contemplate the meaning of existence through Kawase’s landscapes. Somehow, Obsidian Fog gets it.