Kawase Hasui

This holiday card assortment presents four works by the prominent Japanese woodblock print artist, Kawase Hasui (1883-1957), who was renowned for his exquisite snow scenes and serene landscapes of rural Japan. To gather inspiration for his prints, Hasui sketched with watercolors as he traveled throughout the country. These paintings were later transformed into woodblock prints by the skillful artisans at the Tokyo printing studio of publisher Watanabe Shozaburo. Part of the shin hanga, or "new prints," movement of the early twentieth century, Hasui was one of its most prolific artists; he designed more than six hundred prints during his forty-year career. In 1956, he was awarded the prestigious title of "Living National Treasure" by the Japanese government.