Winter Moon over Toyama Plain 1931

Hasui Kawase made this print of the winter moon over Toyama Plain with coloured inks, presumably using a woodblock technique. It feels old and new at the same time. I'm thinking about the process of creating a print like this, imagining the artist carving away at the block, slowly revealing the image bit by bit. Kawase may have started with the deep blues of the sky, and then moved onto the silhouettes of the trees, allowing them to emerge from the darkness. That stark white moon offers a break in the gloom, a focal point. I can imagine him carefully registering each block to get the colours just right, building up the image layer by layer. This reminds me of Hiroshi Yoshida who, like Kawase, was part of the shin-hanga movement, which adapted traditional ukiyo-e techniques. All these artists are in a constant conversation, a timeless exchange of vision, each inspiring the other to see and create something new.