Arai Yoshimune

Arai Yoshimune (1863-1941) was a Japanese woodblock illustrator and print designer of the shin-hanga - new prints - movement. Much of his work was published by the publishers Hasegawa or Nishinomiya.

Arai Yoshimune was noted for his technique in depicting the effect of light at night and on water. His most popular works are part of a series called Hasegawa Takejirō 's Night Scenes.

Arai Yoshimune appears to have provided many illustrations for the publisher Hasegawa Takejirō´s production of calendars, many as crepe paper book. The illustrations for his 1901 calendar published in 1899 are included here. Some of them are almost identical to the published prints.

Limited information is available about Yoshimune Arai. His name gained broader attention after the death of American art dealer and collector Robert O. Muller in 2003. When Muller's vast collection of Shin Hanga prints was introduced to the international market, Yoshimune Arai was rediscovered as one of the contributing artists.

The biographical data registered with some auction sales was recently updated after new research.