Japanese art on canvas
Matsushima, Futagojima (Moonlight Detail)
Kawase Hasui · 1933
From $99 CAD
A full moon opens a path of light between pine-covered islands in a blue bay. This selected square detail from Kawase Hasui’s Matsushima, Futagojima brings the quiet beauty of his nocturnal landscape into your home as a cropped canvas reproduction over a sturdy 1.5-inch wood stretcher.
| 8 × 8 in. | $99 CAD |
|---|---|
| 12 × 12 in. | $149 CAD |
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Premium quality canvas print of “Matsushima, Futagojima (Moonlight Detail)” by Kawase Hasui
A full moon opens a path of light between pine-covered islands in a blue bay. This selected square detail from Kawase Hasui’s Matsushima, Futagojima brings the quiet beauty of his nocturnal landscape into your home as a cropped canvas reproduction over a sturdy 1.5-inch wood stretcher.
Product details: Cropped canvas reproduction of a selected detail from the original design, over a sturdy 1.5-inch wood stretcher. “Moonlight Detail” is a descriptive label for this crop. Available in 8 × 8 in. ($99 CAD) and 12 × 12 in. ($149 CAD). No returns accepted.
More About the Art
Matsushima, Futagojima (Moonlight Detail) presents a square selection from Kawase Hasui’s 1933 woodblock design. A full moon shines through an opening in the clouds, casting a broken path of light across the blue bay. Pine-covered islands occupy the foreground at left and right. Between them, the water remains open, drawing the eye from the dark reflections below toward the distant shore and the luminous sky above.
The moon gives the scene its clearest point of light. Its pale circular form sits within an irregular patch of brighter blue. Around this opening, clouds gather in broad, interlocking shapes, edged with narrow passages of cream. Their uneven contours create a gentle movement across the upper view. Below them, the sky lightens toward the horizon, where distant hills and small islands form low, quiet silhouettes.
The foreground pines supply a contrasting rhythm. Their slender trunks lean at different angles, carrying long branches and dense clusters of needles. The right island rises from a rounded mass of rock, while the left island enters the image from the side. Gaps in the foliage allow the bright water to remain visible between branches. These openings keep the dark trees delicate, even where their silhouettes become thick and closely layered.
Moonlight changes as it travels across the water. Near the distance, short pale marks spread across a wide area of the bay. Closer to the foreground, they form a more concentrated vertical path, with individual strokes widening and narrowing across the ripples. The islands cast dark reflections alongside this light. Their wavering lines echo the trunks and branches above, connecting solid rock and trees with the changing surface below.
Blue holds these elements together. Deep navy around the foreground pines gives way to clearer turquoise across the open water and softer tones along the horizon. The pale moon and cloud edges remain distinct within this restrained colour range. Fine texture is visible throughout the supplied image, adding interest to broad areas of sky and water. The square format brings the moon, its reflection, and the two foreground islands into a close visual relationship.
Hasui designed the complete horizontal print in December 1933. Published by Watanabe Shōzaburō, it belongs to Collected Views of Japan, Eastern Japan Edition. Its Japanese title, Matsushima Futagojima, is written 松嶋双子嶋. LACMA catalogues the complete work as Futago Island: Moonlight at Matsushima. This canvas reproduces the selected square detail shown here; “Moonlight Detail” describes the crop. A small fragment of the original boat remains at the right edge.
Matsushima Bay lies in Miyagi Prefecture, where pine-covered islets contribute to a landscape celebrated among Japan’s Three Scenic Views. Hasui’s design gives that setting a quiet nocturnal character through the relationship of moon, clouds, trees, and water. This cropped canvas offers a focused encounter with those elements. The bright reflection opens a passage through the dark foreground, while the surrounding blues give the image a calm, spacious presence. Seen across a room or examined closely, the view invites attention to the changing shapes of light and the carefully observed forms of the pines.
More About the Artist
Kawase Hasui (1883–1957) was a Japanese artist whose colour woodblock landscapes bring together a clear sense of place and a sensitive response to atmosphere. His subjects include temple grounds, city waterways, country roads, mountain settlements, and coastal views. Across this variety, he paid particular attention to the way light and weather change familiar forms. His complete Matsushima, Futagojima design of 1933 belongs to this sustained exploration of Japan’s landscapes through the woodblock medium.
Hasui was born in Tokyo with the given name Bunjiro. His artistic education included Western-style painting under Okada Saburosuke and Japanese-style painting with Kaburaki Kiyokata, whose studio he joined in 1910. Kiyokata gave him his artist’s name. These different strands of training helped him combine strong outlines and carefully arranged forms with an interest in distance, tonal change, and the observed character of a setting.
The landscape prints of Itō Shinsui, another artist in Kiyokata’s circle, encouraged his interest in woodblock design. In 1918, Hasui began collaborating with the publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō. Their long association became central to shin-hanga, or “new prints,” the twentieth-century renewal of Japanese woodblock production. Artists, specialist carvers, printers, and publishers worked together, continuing a shared craft tradition while developing new approaches to colour, composition, and atmospheric effects.
A finished print therefore depended on the coordination of several kinds of expertise. A drawing had to be interpreted through carved blocks, and successive colours needed to form a coherent image. A delicate pine branch and a broad expanse of water called for different treatments. In the Matsushima design, dense foliage, solid rock, small figures, and changing reflections remain distinct while contributing to the same coastal atmosphere. Such relationships are part of the pleasure of looking closely at his work.
Travel and sketching supplied Hasui with a continuing store of subjects. He journeyed widely across Japan, recording views that later became woodblock designs. Matsushima offered an especially rich landscape of pines, islands, water, and distant shores. The 1933 print forms part of Collected Views of Japan, Eastern Japan Edition, connecting this bay with a wider body of regional scenes. Museum collections preserve the complete design within that series, making its original format and context available for study.
His career also involved major losses. The Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 destroyed Watanabe’s premises, woodblocks, and print stock, while Hasui lost his house and sketchbooks. He continued travelling and designing afterward. Through the later 1920s and following decades, his landscapes explored a broad range of seasons and conditions. The productive years of the early 1930s included many works in which water, architecture, and trees became closely connected through light and carefully chosen viewpoints.
Hasui continued working after the Second World War and remained active into the 1950s. In 1953, the production of Snow at Zōjōji Temple was documented by Japan’s Cultural Properties Protection Committee, preserving a record of the collaborative craft behind a finished print. His career ultimately encompassed more than six hundred designs. Museum collections now allow this extensive body of work to be appreciated in both its individual settings and its recurring visual interests.
The selected detail offered here encourages attention to a few of those interests: the shape of a cloud opening, the patterned edge of a pine, the meeting of rock and water, and the changing width of a moonlit reflection. These elements belong to Hasui’s complete composition, while the square crop gives their relationship a more concentrated presentation. Their clarity and quiet balance help explain why his landscapes continue to invite repeated, unhurried looking.
Sources
LACMA — Futago Island: Moonlight at Matsushima; complete horizontal woodblock print, 1933
Kawase Hasui Catalogue — Futago Islands, Matsushima; title, series and publication details
Egenolf Gallery — Matsushima, Futagojima; complete composition and publication record
Miyagi Prefectural Government / Visit Miyagi — Matsushima Bay and its pine-covered islands
Japan National Tourism Organization — Matsushima and Japan’s Three Scenic Views
Japan Museum SieboldHuis — Kawase Hasui: Capturing the Soul of Japan
Tokyo Fuji Art Museum — Kawase Hasui biography and 1953 print-production documentation
Premium quality canvas print of “Matsushima, Futagojima (Moonlight Detail)” by Kawase Hasui
A full moon opens a path of light between pine-covered islands in a blue bay. This selected square detail from Kawase Hasui’s Matsushima, Futagojima brings the quiet beauty of his nocturnal landscape into your home as a cropped canvas reproduction over a sturdy 1.5-inch wood stretcher.
Product details: Cropped canvas reproduction of a selected detail from the original design, over a sturdy 1.5-inch wood stretcher. “Moonlight Detail” is a descriptive label for this crop. Available in 8 × 8 in. ($99 CAD) and 12 × 12 in. ($149 CAD). No returns accepted.
More About the Art
Matsushima, Futagojima (Moonlight Detail) presents a square selection from Kawase Hasui’s 1933 woodblock design. A full moon shines through an opening in the clouds, casting a broken path of light across the blue bay. Pine-covered islands occupy the foreground at left and right. Between them, the water remains open, drawing the eye from the dark reflections below toward the distant shore and the luminous sky above.
The moon gives the scene its clearest point of light. Its pale circular form sits within an irregular patch of brighter blue. Around this opening, clouds gather in broad, interlocking shapes, edged with narrow passages of cream. Their uneven contours create a gentle movement across the upper view. Below them, the sky lightens toward the horizon, where distant hills and small islands form low, quiet silhouettes.
The foreground pines supply a contrasting rhythm. Their slender trunks lean at different angles, carrying long branches and dense clusters of needles. The right island rises from a rounded mass of rock, while the left island enters the image from the side. Gaps in the foliage allow the bright water to remain visible between branches. These openings keep the dark trees delicate, even where their silhouettes become thick and closely layered.
Moonlight changes as it travels across the water. Near the distance, short pale marks spread across a wide area of the bay. Closer to the foreground, they form a more concentrated vertical path, with individual strokes widening and narrowing across the ripples. The islands cast dark reflections alongside this light. Their wavering lines echo the trunks and branches above, connecting solid rock and trees with the changing surface below.
Blue holds these elements together. Deep navy around the foreground pines gives way to clearer turquoise across the open water and softer tones along the horizon. The pale moon and cloud edges remain distinct within this restrained colour range. Fine texture is visible throughout the supplied image, adding interest to broad areas of sky and water. The square format brings the moon, its reflection, and the two foreground islands into a close visual relationship.
Hasui designed the complete horizontal print in December 1933. Published by Watanabe Shōzaburō, it belongs to Collected Views of Japan, Eastern Japan Edition. Its Japanese title, Matsushima Futagojima, is written 松嶋双子嶋. LACMA catalogues the complete work as Futago Island: Moonlight at Matsushima. This canvas reproduces the selected square detail shown here; “Moonlight Detail” describes the crop. A small fragment of the original boat remains at the right edge.
Matsushima Bay lies in Miyagi Prefecture, where pine-covered islets contribute to a landscape celebrated among Japan’s Three Scenic Views. Hasui’s design gives that setting a quiet nocturnal character through the relationship of moon, clouds, trees, and water. This cropped canvas offers a focused encounter with those elements. The bright reflection opens a passage through the dark foreground, while the surrounding blues give the image a calm, spacious presence. Seen across a room or examined closely, the view invites attention to the changing shapes of light and the carefully observed forms of the pines.
More About the Artist
Kawase Hasui (1883–1957) was a Japanese artist whose colour woodblock landscapes bring together a clear sense of place and a sensitive response to atmosphere. His subjects include temple grounds, city waterways, country roads, mountain settlements, and coastal views. Across this variety, he paid particular attention to the way light and weather change familiar forms. His complete Matsushima, Futagojima design of 1933 belongs to this sustained exploration of Japan’s landscapes through the woodblock medium.
Hasui was born in Tokyo with the given name Bunjiro. His artistic education included Western-style painting under Okada Saburosuke and Japanese-style painting with Kaburaki Kiyokata, whose studio he joined in 1910. Kiyokata gave him his artist’s name. These different strands of training helped him combine strong outlines and carefully arranged forms with an interest in distance, tonal change, and the observed character of a setting.
The landscape prints of Itō Shinsui, another artist in Kiyokata’s circle, encouraged his interest in woodblock design. In 1918, Hasui began collaborating with the publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō. Their long association became central to shin-hanga, or “new prints,” the twentieth-century renewal of Japanese woodblock production. Artists, specialist carvers, printers, and publishers worked together, continuing a shared craft tradition while developing new approaches to colour, composition, and atmospheric effects.
A finished print therefore depended on the coordination of several kinds of expertise. A drawing had to be interpreted through carved blocks, and successive colours needed to form a coherent image. A delicate pine branch and a broad expanse of water called for different treatments. In the Matsushima design, dense foliage, solid rock, small figures, and changing reflections remain distinct while contributing to the same coastal atmosphere. Such relationships are part of the pleasure of looking closely at his work.
Travel and sketching supplied Hasui with a continuing store of subjects. He journeyed widely across Japan, recording views that later became woodblock designs. Matsushima offered an especially rich landscape of pines, islands, water, and distant shores. The 1933 print forms part of Collected Views of Japan, Eastern Japan Edition, connecting this bay with a wider body of regional scenes. Museum collections preserve the complete design within that series, making its original format and context available for study.
His career also involved major losses. The Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 destroyed Watanabe’s premises, woodblocks, and print stock, while Hasui lost his house and sketchbooks. He continued travelling and designing afterward. Through the later 1920s and following decades, his landscapes explored a broad range of seasons and conditions. The productive years of the early 1930s included many works in which water, architecture, and trees became closely connected through light and carefully chosen viewpoints.
Hasui continued working after the Second World War and remained active into the 1950s. In 1953, the production of Snow at Zōjōji Temple was documented by Japan’s Cultural Properties Protection Committee, preserving a record of the collaborative craft behind a finished print. His career ultimately encompassed more than six hundred designs. Museum collections now allow this extensive body of work to be appreciated in both its individual settings and its recurring visual interests.
The selected detail offered here encourages attention to a few of those interests: the shape of a cloud opening, the patterned edge of a pine, the meeting of rock and water, and the changing width of a moonlit reflection. These elements belong to Hasui’s complete composition, while the square crop gives their relationship a more concentrated presentation. Their clarity and quiet balance help explain why his landscapes continue to invite repeated, unhurried looking.
Sources for the artwork and artist
- Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art — Complete Futago Island, Matsushima design; December 1933, Watanabe publisher and Eastern Japan series
- LACMA — Futago Island: Moonlight at Matsushima; complete horizontal woodblock print, 1933
- National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo — Futago Island, Matsushima; Japanese title and Eastern Japan series
- Kawase Hasui Catalogue — Futago Islands, Matsushima; title, series and publication details
- Egenolf Gallery — Matsushima, Futagojima; complete composition and publication record
- Miyagi Prefectural Government / Visit Miyagi — Matsushima Bay and its pine-covered islands
- Japan National Tourism Organization — Matsushima and Japan’s Three Scenic Views
- British Museum — Kawase Hasui biography
- Japan Museum SieboldHuis — Kawase Hasui: Capturing the Soul of Japan
- Tokyo Fuji Art Museum — Kawase Hasui biography and 1953 print-production documentation