Spring Night, Ginza
Artist
Kasamatsu Shiro
(Japanese, 1898–1991)
Date1933
Mediummulticolored woodblock print
Dimensions39.9 x 26 cm (15 11/16 x 10 1/4 in.)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineHarriet B. Bancroft Fund
Object number1998.54
DescriptionPost World War II reprint. Before the Great Kanto Earthquake, only the northern part of present-day Ginza was known by that name. During the 1920's, it grew into a major entertainment area, and the number of drinking places doubled. Sarai-man (salary-men, white-collar workers) flocked to its bars, cafes, dance halls, and caberets.
Kasamatsu Shiro depicts Ginza on a mild spring night when the new leaves are just opening on the area's famous willow trees. The artist's use of the blue to suggest the color of night when it is illuminated by street lamps and signs is quite lyrical. Crowds of men and women, well dressed in both Japanese and Western clothing, fill the streets. The dancers in the rounded dance hall at the upper right are silhouetted by the interior lighting. A man stands within the closed curtain of the sushi bar at the lower left. The lighted sign of a soba (noodle) shop down the street is easily read. Men on their way home from a night fo drinking or the theater would pop into places like this for a quick bite to eat. Images such as this one surely inspired the use of the name Ginza for busy shopping and entertainment areas throughout the country.
Kasamatsu was among the New Print artists included in a 1936 exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art. This was the second of two important exhibitions held there to feature works by that group (the first took place in 1930), both were organized by Yoshida Hiroshi. Born in Yokyo, Kasamatsu studied Japanese-style painting with Kaburagi Kiyokata (1878-1972), an important modern Japanese-style painter and illustrator. Kasamatsu often exhibited his paintings in the annual official exhibitions. Encouraged by Kiyokata, he began designing for Watanabe in 1919 and produced many prints for the publisher in the decade that followed. After World War II, Kasamatsu withdrew from the Watanabe group; his subsequent designs are self-carved and self-printed. Watanabe reissued this print from the original blocks, which he owned.
ProvenanceJeffrey Oliver, East-West Gallery
On View
Not on view
