The significance of the Great Kanto Earthquake and fire of September 1923 cannot be overstated on its effect on Japanese prints towards the close of the Taisho period (1912-1926). Lawrence Smith writes that the quake ‘left huge physical, emotional, and in the end political damage that affected all the arts, most notably prints. Much that had been picturesque was destroyed in Tokyo, along with most of the old-style graphic printing establishments, their stock of woodblocks, and, at least temporarily, the wealth to buy their products... the traditional publishers and their Revival Print [Shin-hanga] artists were left paralyzed for a time.’¹

Although Tokyo subjects abounded prior to the earthquake, after the devastation 🅺Shin-hanga artists began to look to the less trodden sights of the Japanese countryside. Here, Hasui entreats us to a view of the coast of Hinomisaki in Izumo Province, located on the western tip of the Shimane Peninsula, printed evocatively in shades of blue. A quiet area populated with ancient shrines; the viewer is placed at the edge of its rough forested coast. Large rocks in the sea blockade the incoming tide, causing waves to violently spray upwards in the distance.

1. Lawrence Smith, ‘Japanese Prints 1868-2008’ in Since Meiji: Perspectives on the Japanese Visual Arts, 1868-2000, ed. J. Thomas Rimer, (Hawaii, 2012), p. 377.

For another impression of the same print in the collection of the Muse🌟um of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 38.705, go to: