According to Japanese fashion designer Rei Kawakubo, “What’s interesting about collaborations is the possibility for one plus one to equal three.”

For proof of the power of collaboration, look no further than the new print exhibit at VMFA, “Producing the Picturesque: Watercolors and Collaborative Prints by Kawase Hasui.” The exhibition features Hasui works donated since 2006 by patrons René and Carolyn Balcer.

In designing over 600 print compositions over the course of his career, Hasui became the most significant Japanese woodblock artist of the 20th century. When he was 35, he began creating watercolor landscapes for the print publisher Watanabe Shozaburo, an artistic partnership that continued for more than four decades.

Publisher Watanabe had been inspired by 19th-century Japanese prints and was dedicated to reviving the longtime tradition of collaborative woodblock printmaking, albeit in a modernistic manner. Creating new prints, called Shin-hanga, required the collaborative efforts of the artist, the block carver and the printer, all coming together under Watanabe’s meticulous instruction.

The collaborative results were picturesque compositions of Japanese landscapes that display a nostalgia for traditional Japanese culture and scenery during the time when the country was rapidly industrializing and modernizing. The prints were then widely circulated locally and abroad, providing glimpses into a disappearing culture.

For the viewer at VMFA, the exhibit provides a fascinating glimpse into the printmaking process and the artistic evolution from watercolor to print.

In Hasui’s 1930 watercolor, “Setakamui Rock, Shiribeshi,” it’s not the muted green of the water lapping on the shore or the few clouds trailing across a pale blue sky that attract the eye first, despite the beauty of the colors. Instead, it’s the angle of the sun hitting one low spot on the rocks that gives the viewer a sense they have caught a fleeting moment that, with a few more steps along the beach, will disappear, leaving the entire rock in shadow.

But look at the 1933 woodblock print of “Setakamui Rock, Shiribeshi” and the sunny warmth of the colors has been replaced with brighter hues and sharper delineation. The ocean has morphed from greenish blue to turquoise with stylized white foam leading each wave. The rock is darker, its green areas more vivid and the beach area pitched more steeply. The overall effect is very different.

Decisions about color for woodblock prints were a function of the collaboration and multiple prints created during the trial process. Eventually, a satisfactory color palette was chosen for the final prints and on occasion, two different color variants were printed with the same carved woodblock.

A third version of “Setakamui Rock, Shiribeshi” differs from the original watercolor and earlier print by suggesting the same scene at sunrise, rather than daytime. The pink-hued alternative shows changes in the water and greenery color as well. It was often Watanabe who made final color choices based on his judgment of which combination would sell the best to consumers, the final decision-makers.

Sometimes, it was the composition and not just the coloration that changed with successive efforts. The differences between the watercolor and print of “Hayama in Iyo” are myriad. The boat is seen from a different angle, one far more pleasing to the eye, and the island that bisects the painting has been shifted farther to the right in the print. The tiny sailboat that was originally to the right of the island now sails along to the left of it.

And while the clouds remain the same in both, for a later version, they are removed entirely. In all likelihood, changes such as these came from the publisher, Watanabe, who knew his audience and what they would buy.

Viewers may find themselves torn between the original watercolor versions and the subsequent prints, given how differently they convey the same scenes. Or even a variation on the scene. “View of Mount Unzen from Amakusa” begins as a close-up view of a man and donkey walking through tea fields and finishes with a long view, the figures now tiny in the distance and set in a sweeping panoramic view so as to be almost unrecognizable as the same scene.

Much of that can likely be attributed to publisher Watanabe and his ongoing instructions to Hasui, the block carver and printer. With printmaking, as with fashion, collaboration allows for possibilities even the artist might not have envisioned.

“Producing the Picturesque: Watercolors and Collaborative Prints by Kawase Hasui” through May 27 at VMFA, 200 N. Arthur Ashe Boulevard, vmfa.museum