Japanese Woodblock Print, originally printed 1933, this later edition published by Doi Eiichi

SIZE IN INCHES: oban, 10.75 x 15.75 inches

ABOUT ENOSHIMA BEACH. Enoshima is a small island, about 4 km in circumference, at the mouth of the Katase River, which flows into Sagami Bay in Japan. Part of the city of Fujisawa, it is linked to the Katase section of the same city on the mainland by a 600 meter-long bridge. Adjacent to the closest beach to Tokyo and Yokohama, the island and the nearby coast are the hub of a popular resort area.

Benzaiten, the goddess of music and entertainment, is also enshrined on the island. Enoshima is the center of Shonan, a resort area along the coast of Sagami Bay known for its scenic beauty. The island is the scene of the Enoshima Engi, a history of the shrines on Enoshima written by the Japanese Buddhist monk Kokei in 1047 AD.

When visitors to the island look back at the shore at Enoshima Beach, they see an area that resembles western resort and often called "Miami Beach of Asia." Today the beach is famous for attracting tourists during the summer for swimming, but it has attracted visitors for centuries. The area is well documented in prints by Hiroshige, Hokusai and Utamaro among many others.

KAWASE HASUI (1883-1957) was a Japanese woodblock print maker in the early 20th century. He and Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) are widely regarded as two of the greatest artists of the shin hanga style, and are known especially for their excellent landscape prints. During the forty years of his artistic career, Hasui worked closely with Watanabe Shozaburo (1885-1962), publisher and advocate of the shin hanga movement. His works became widely known in the West through American connoisseur Robert O. Muller (1911-2003). In 1956, he was named a Living National Treasure in Japan.

Hasui worked almost exclusively on landscape and townscape prints based on sketches he made in Tokyo and during travels around Japan. However, his prints are not merely meisho (famous places) prints that are typical of earlier ukiyo-e masters such as Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). The prints of Hasui feature locale that are tranquil and obscure in the then-urbanizing Japan. The dreamlike quality in his designs epitomizes a yearning for the past and a preservation of the past in the midst of rapid modernization.

Fine, no flaws