"One hundred woodblock prints of the 20th-century Japanese artist Hasui are cataloged in bright colors on large pages roughly 9" x 11". Captions for the hundred are grouped following the prints. With annotations which are comments by Hasui on the particular print or informative remarks by Narazaki Munishige, editor of a book on the artist's prints, the captions are instructive. Instructive too are two introductory essays by Kendall H. Brown. The first is on the Japanese cultural sources of Hasui's prints; the second focuses on Hasui's life and art. The succinct text with the appealing pictures of numerous prints offers an ideal introduction to and sampling of the woodblock prints by this outstanding Japanese artist who is regarded as one of the primary artists of the 20th-century Japanese art movement known as "New prints" (Shin-hanga)."--Midwest Book Review "Landscapes featuring nature and town, produced by one master designer and published as woodblock-printed pictures, are in this fine volume.

Hasui, born in 1883, worked as a landscape print artist until his death in 1957. In 1956, he was honored as a 'National Living Treasure,' a keen measure of the esteem that he and his art carried throughout most of his lifetime. Hasui was a leading player among the shin-hanga artists and publishers who collectively reinvented, reconfigured, and revitalized the fading traditions of ukiyo-e and of publishing woodblock-printed imagery. It was the broad world that became Hasui's theme and formed the bulwark of his vision. It is sharply focused by contributors and editors in 100 superb examples that are informed by essays on shin-hanga and Hasui's life but unencumbered by other commentary on the same page. Comments for each picture are grouped together in captions at the book's end, leaving the landscape pictures, chronologically offered, a comfortable amount of space (breathing room) to speak clearly in their own terms. As a result, reader/viewers see the images directly and without intermediation. The effect is powerful and persuasive.

The book includes a map of Japan and a fine full-page photograph of the artist. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; faculty; professionals."--D. K. Dohanian, emeritus, University of Rochester in CHOICE.