CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/19/2026

In 'Hokusai, Hiroshige, Hasui,' three masters of Japanese landscape printmaking

For anyone interested in Japanese woodblock technique or the global history of landscape printmaking, MFA Publications has just released a book that is as exquisite as it is scholarly. Featuring 130 color reproductions spanning from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, Hokusai, Hiroshige, Hasui: Japanese Landscapes in Print is drawn from one of the world’s finest collections of the genre. “The historical development of the Japanese landscape print can be seen through the comparison of these three major artists: Hokusai, the innovator; Hiroshige, the developer; and Hasui, who reinvented the field in modern terms,” curator Sarah E. Thompson writes. “Even today, some of the actual landscapes in the prints can still be seen by those who seek them out. Moreover, many popular contemporary works, such as the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, allude to the powerful appeal of the older Japan seen in the prints of Hokusai, Hiroshige and Hasui.” Pictured here: Hokusai’s “Fine Wind, Clear Weather” from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, about 1830– 31; details from Hiroshige’s “Plum Garden, Kamata” and “Ayase River and Kanegafuchi” from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 1857; and a detail from Hasui’s “Hinomisaki in Izumo Province” from the series Souvenirs of Travel III, 1924.