re: #121 Barefoot Grin

That’s gorgeous. It is definitely in accord with several shifts that happened with the opening of Japan. Access to new paints and colors made woodblock-style prints move vivid and deep. Access to Western literature probably changed the focus of some artists (can’t speak for Hasui). I’m rambling, but there was definitely a battle among artists of all stripes of how much to embrace the new influences that were rushing into Japan from the 1850s until…well, now.

Definitely something I hadn’t considered, but I can see the reflections of some of that in a lot of his prints. Hasui was landscape-oriented, in general, but also temples and castles and the more “traditional” Japan - there’s very little in his work that indicates this was in the era leading up to WWII and in fact through WWII. Much more pre-opening Japan as the themes go, in a lot of ways.

I confess I just like them because I am a sucker for good landscapes, and the clean lines and the colors and just gah. I have two others by him, like I said, and probably lust after a good 5-6 more but my 4th piece is a print by Koitsu which also plays a lot with the same concepts of pre-opening Japan (in that one, two geisha stepping out of a tea house - gorgeous play of light).