川瀬巴水

Kawase Hasui (1883–1957) revived the fading woodblock print tradition by pioneering shin-hanga, the new prints of early twentieth-century Japan. Working closely with publisher Shōzaburō Watanabe, he created nearly a thousand prints over forty years, establishing himself as the era's foremost landscape printmaker. His subjects—rainy streets, snowy temples, quiet towns across Japan—captured atmospheric effects and naturalistic light inspired by Western painting, yet rendered in the traditional woodblock medium.