Waves of renewal

At the beginning of the twentieth century, two movements were born in Japan, each representing a different response to this new deal and of fascinating diversity. The printer Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885-1962) became anxious about the flow of prints to the West, and also by the dwindling of the technical skills required for the production of high quality prints. He decided to seek out artists capable of reviving printmaking and of creating a new style, without dispensing with the traditional division of labour – in other words, four people working in collaboration, the artist, the engraver, the printer and the publisher. The movement inspired by Watanabe is called shin hanga, or ‘new print’. The subject of these ‘new prints’ remained within the traditional categories – landscape, portraits of women and actors, flowers and birds in innovative styles.

The shin hanga to be seen in the exhibition

The shin hanga movement is represented in the exhibition by the work of Kawase Hasui (1883-1957), Kasamatsu Shirō (1898-1991) and Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950), with landscapes bathed in the light of the rising sun or, by contrast, assaulted by heavy rain or snow. Hashiguchi Goyō (1880-1921), Itō Shinsui (1898-1972) and Torii Kotondo (1900-1976) specialised in portraits of beautiful, thoughtful-looking women. Others, in particular Kobayakawa Kiyoshi (1889-1948) turned to the representation of the moga (‘modern girls’), independent, fashion-conscious young women.

Inspired by western practice, and keen to raise the status of printmaking, the partisans of sōsaku hanga wanted to give back to the artist control of all the stages of production, without the intervention of specialised craftsmen such as the engraver or the printer. The mark of the chisel on the block of wood became the expression of the artist’s personality, as was the calligrapher’s or painter’s brushstroke on paper. By comparison with the prints of shin hanga, the results can be of rougher quality and can be marked by a feeling of spontaneity, of the impromptu – sometimes seeming unfinished.

Unlike shin hanga prints, which attracted foreign buyers, sōsaku hanga prints were generally bought by the Japanese public, either by subscription or at exhibitions.

The sōsaku hanga to be seen in the exhibition

The sōsaku hanga style is represented in the exhibition by some of the best works of the artist Yamamoto Kanae (1882-1946), who spent several years in France studying western painting; he made exceptional prints of the landscape and people of Brittany.

Onchi Kōshurō (1891-1955), a leading figure in the movement, was resolutely attached to the notion that the artist should engrave his own plates. His poignant portraits of women, and his semi-abstract urban landscapes are emblematic of twentieth-century Japanese art – and are today extremely hard to come by.

In addition, the exhibition gives an important place to the artists who depicted the re-emergence of modern Tokyo after the destruction caused by the great earthquake of Kantō in 1923. These works show the erection of western-style buildings and the transformation of the city into a modern capital.