Hasui 巴水: After the Rain at Sannô 山王の雨後 (SOLD)

Artist: Kawase Hasui 巴水 (1883-1957) Title: After the Rain at Sannô 山王の雨後 Date: 1938 The rain has just stopped, leading the single visitor this Tokyo shrine to fold her umbrella. The paving stones are slick with rain, and the unfaded vermilion of the temple is glorious against the grey stones and green tree. This is a prewar view of Hie Shrine, which is known for the yearly Sanno Festival that still takes place in June. The view today is quite different, as this shrine building was lost to the bombing of Tokyo during WWII, and the present structure was rebuilt in 1958.  Here we can appreciate the best of Hasui, as we can put ourselves in the shoes (or geta) of the single visitor who has this magnificent shrine to herself. The Japanese consider this one of Hasui’s finest shrine scenes. Provenance: From the personal collection of the late Hasui scholar and curator Hisao Shimizu (1953-2020). This work often contains two of Watanabe’s seals, as here, although this is a first edition, with t