Saturday, February 21, 2009

Kawase Hasui 1950's video

Found this old movie clip from what looks like the 1950's and probably created by the Watanabe Studio as propaganda. It starts famous artist Kawase Hasui and master carver Maeda Kentaro (printer's name not known). I looked at the Hasui galleries' at Hanga.com but could not identify this particular Hasui image. If anyone has more info or knows the title of this print please leave a comment.
The video takes you step-by-step in the making of a woodblock print. Small clip shows the covering of a baren and near the end how the printer quickly makes an adjustment to the kento. Unfortunately it looks like either the filming or the video copy was cut a bit short....anyway this is wonderful stuff not to be missed !!!

2 comments:

  1. This print is #609 in the Complete Woodblock print catalog. His last one was #613.
    Western Hamlet, Horyu Temple (Horyuji Nishi Sato) done in 1956.

    The temple is located in SW Nara. These are some of the oldest wooden buildings in Japan (7-8 century). They were restored in the 1950's.

    Thanks for sharing the video.

    Steve

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  2. What a fascinating insight into his artistic process!

    ReplyDelete