Three shows on display at the Honolulu Academy of Arts take the viewer on a journey through time: to China from the early sixth century to the 1960s, to Japan from the 18th to the 20th centuries, and to Hawai'i in the 1930s.

In the James A. and Mari Michener Gallery, woodblock prints of Kawase Hasui, the leading 20th-century Japanese landscape artist, are displayed in a highly effective exhibition that places him side by side with master 19th-century ukiyo-e artists, including Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige.

Known for his exquisite landscape prints, Hasui was one of the most prolific and talented shin hanga ("new prints") artists of the early 20th century.

Shin hanga took the art of ukiyo-e to a new renaissance from about 1910 until 1960, integrating Western elements without giving up the old values of traditional Japanese woodblock prints. Instead of blindly imitating Western art styles, it concentrated on traditional subjects: landscapes, beautiful women and actor portraits. Inspired by European Impressionism and photography, artists introduced the effects of light and the expression of individual moods. The result was a technically superb and compelling new style of Japanese prints.

A prolific artist, Hasui designed more than 600 prints during his 40-plus-year career as part of a post-Meiji-era movement to revitalize the classic tradition of Japanese woodblock prints.

Hasui was a conservative, retrograde personality, preferring the kimono to a suit, Japanese sake to western spirits. He was a small, nearsighted man, wearing thick eyeglasses. To sketch details, he had to get close to an object. His life on the road was expensive. He never became rich, but he was able to make a living as a full-time printmaker. He lost his home twice, first in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake — one of the worst natural disasters in the history of Japan — and then again in the World War II bombing of Tokyo.

Many feel Hasui's most original work was done at the beginning of his career. Sadly, the blocks for these early prints were destroyed in that devastating 1923 quake, never to be reprinted. As a result, his pre-earthquake prints are among the rarest and most sought-after shin hanga.

Many of Hasui's landscape prints are reminiscent of Hokusai and Hiroshige prints, although he retained his own style, informed by the westernized environment in which he matured. We can see this graphically in paired works dealing with the same theme: snow and moonlit night scenery, pine trees and Mount Fuji.

His "Fuji River" evokes Hokusai's famous Mount Fuji prints, such as "Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit," also on display.

The snow-covered red buildings in "Zojoji Temple in Shiba" recall Hiroshige's "Asakusa Kinryuzan," and the figure with an umbrella is taken from his "Night Snow at Kambara."

The westernization of Japan created deeply felt internal conflicts and loss of identity. Shin hanga artists attempted to capture the idealized vision of an idyllic Japan of the Edo period, known for the flowering of the ukiyo-e print.

Hasui's masterful works speak to that zone somewhere between tradition and innovation, the marriage of traditional values with modern sensibility, a deep, rich and resonant color sense enriching dynamic, less-flat design space.

His skillful use of western techniques to capture the essence of Japan made his work much sought after both in Japan and internationally. He was honored by the Japanese government in 1956 for his contributions to the art of woodblock prints by being designated a National Living Treasure one year before his death, the first person to receive that honor.

This exhibition of some of his master works, seen in the context of the tradition he was honoring in turn, shows Hasui was indeed a treasure.

TREASURE TROVE

Art collector Rosalind Ching Pastor has generously allowed the display of more than 50 pieces in "Masterworks of Chinese Art from the Rosalind Ching Pastor Collection" in a truly well-designed and beautiful exhibition.

The seated figure of Caixing, the god of wealth, a 19th-century glazed stoneware piece from the Shekwan kilns near Canton, graces the entrance to the gallery and welcomes the viewer to a wealth of aesthetic treasures.

Porcelains of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties are featured, lovely and exquisite classic pieces that fairly stand for Chinese ceramics at their zenith.

The collection covers a broad time span and includes a wide variety of materials. Rare pieces, such as a gray earthenware funerary sculpture of a ram from the Northern Wei dynasty of the 6th century, eloquently invoke the spirit of vanished kingdoms.

Equally fascinating is a ceramic pillow from the Northern Song dynasty (960-1125) that belonged to the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736-95) of the Qing dynasty. Carved into the glaze on the pillow's upper surface in his own elegant calligraphy is a poem he wrote in 1746, indicating it was once part of the imperial collection in Beijing's Forbidden City.

Among the many beautiful porcelains on display are a large calligraphy brush handle, decorated with five-clawed red dragons flying among underglazed blue clouds; a pale celadon vase shaped like a Shang dynasty bronze ritual vessel, with the imperial reign mark of the Yongzheng emperor (r. 1723-35); and a rare selection of imperial porcelain vessels of the late Qing dynasty reigns of Jiaqing, Daoguang and Guangxu.

A brilliantly translucent tripod incense burner (xianglu) from the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty, carved from a single block of pale green nephrite and decorated with dragons, demonstrates the possibilities inherent in jade in the hands of master craftsmen.

The exhibition also features excellent examples of Qing dynasty and early and mid-20th century Chinese paintings, including a finger painting by 18th century master Gao Qipei and scrolls by modern masters — and the most famous Chinese painters of the 20th century — Qi Baishi and Zhang Daqian.

An exquisitely delicate ink painting on a paper fan, done by the 11th son of the Quianlong emperor, likewise epitomizes the often greater power of smaller works and the magic of the calligraphic brush.

Four hanging scrolls by Pu Jin, Pu Ru, Pu Jian and Pu Quan — the cousins of Pu Yi, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty — summon forth the bittersweet memories of a vanished glory. The scrolls have remained together ever since they were painted as a set in 1939.

This is an exceptional show that promises to touch the heart and the mind in equal measure, whether you are an artist, a historian or just someone who appreciates rare beauty in its many wonderful and astonishing guises.

HISTORIC HAWAI'I

Upstairs in the rotating gallery section of the elegant John Dominis and Patches Damon Holt Gallery is featured the first rotation (through Oct. 16) of works by Canadian-born Alexander Sam-uel MacLeod (1888-1956), a selection of lithographs from the academy's collection, most from the 1930s. The second rotation (Oct. 20 to Jan. 22) will feature Ko'olau Range vistas and images that depict Hawai'i and its soldiers during the 1940s.

Historically, the works are fascinating, because we can feel how pre-war Hawai'i lived and breathed. Aesthetically, however, the work is not particularly strong or effective.

MacLeod arrived in Hawai'i in the early 1920s and worked in the art departments of the magazine Paradise of the Pacific and local newspapers, including The Advertiser.

His lithographs suffer from their illustrational objective and naive execution, especially of the human figure. He bears down on the lithographic stone and gives us deep blacks or sometimes breathy tones, ignoring the subtle range of grays.

Nor is MacLeod's vision particularly insightful. He avoids the closeup and gives us long shots of rural O'ahu and Hawai'i's native population. He's obviously a stranger, pressing his nose against the glass of an alien and exotic culture profoundly changed forever by World War II and statehood.

But just step out into the rest of the spacious and glorious gallery, where you'll see a gorgeous and insightful display of the art of Hawai'i, from pre-contact artifacts through early imported masters like Dampier, Walden and Hitchcock and on to recent masters like Louis Pohl, Rueben Tam and John Young.

Here you'll find Macleod's masterful 1925 oil, the majestic "Moonlight and Southern Cross," in feel and technique exquisitely rendered, an imaginative image more real than the reality of a full moonlit Hawai'i night, the archetypal vision of the Hawai'i of our hearts.

David C. Farmer holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting and drawing, and a master's in Asian and Pacific art history from the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.