Hasui 巴水: Shiba Great Gate 芝大門 (Sold)

Artist: Kawase Hasui 川瀬 巴水 (1883-1957) Title: Shiba Great Gate 芝大門 (Shiba Daimon) Date: 1926 (Taishô jûgonen saku) A bicyclist pedals beneath this famous red-orange landmark, which once marked the entrance to the Zojoji Temple grounds. The streets are slick with rain, and the telephone pole and the man’s garments lend a more modern feeling than Hasui usually expressed in his works. The vantage point is rather unusual, as Hasui seems to be peering out from over a wall, perhaps from within the compound. The wooden Daimon gate seen here in 1926 was replaced with a reinforced-concrete gate in 1937, which somehow survived the war and still stands today. Most of Zojoji Temple was converted into a public park in the Meiji period, and today the gate stands above a busy street in Minato City, surrounded by unremarkable city buildings. Hasui completed five prints with the publisher Isetatsu between 1925 and 1927, which represented his first foray of working with a publisher other than Watanabe.