Musashi

The book

The same book, read for its quiet stretches rather than its duels.

Why Kawase Hasui

Kawase Hasui (1883–1957) is shin-hanga: the twentieth-century revival that kept the woodblock method and let in Western light and atmosphere. He is the hand for the parts of Musashi that are not fighting — a lone figure under snow, a lit window at dusk, a road in rain.

Yoshikawa's novel is two-thirds travel and waiting, and this is the only edition that takes that seriously.

What to look for

Weather and time of day carrying the whole plate. Hasui's subject is almost always the light rather than the thing being lit.

Plates

The Mud of SekigaharaTakuan's BargainThe Yoshioka GateShishido's Chain and SickleSeijūrō Carried HomeFlight Through the PaddiesThe Swallow CutThe Nagoya GateThe Flood NightThe Notice at the FordMatahachi's ReckoningKojirō Waits