Essays: Sôsaku Hanga
A short overview
Japanese woodblock prints first came to Europe in the early 19th century, brought back by Franz von Siebold. These are now in the ethnographic museum in Leiden, The Netherlands, and most are still in the completely unfaded condition they were in when von Siebold bought them around 1830. More examples came to the West when U.S. Navy Commodore Perry “opened” Japan in 1853, and afterwards during the Meiji Restoration, which started in 1868.
Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints had a profound impact on Western artists. Vincent van Gogh is often mentioned in this connection, but nearly every artist in the latter half of the 19th century was under the influence of Japonisme. Early collectors, like the Goncourt brothers, were convinced that the golden age of Japanese prints was long past and had really ended with the death of Hokusai in 1849. Toyokuni III (= Utagawa Kunisada, 1786–1864) and Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798–1861) were considered “decadents”, though a grudging exception was made for Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), especially for his early landscapes.
The last quarter of the 19th century brought profound changes in Japan. From an essentially medieval country, Japan was transformed into a modern nation, first demonstrating its new power by defeating China in a short and bloody war in 1894–95, and then repeating the feat by defeating Russia in 1905. In the field of woodblock prints, the changes were dramatic as well — not on the same political or social scale, but just as fundamental.
The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95 was, in fact, the stage for the last flowering of traditional ukiyo-e. The war was carefully covered by woodblock print artists, who showed the general public the heroic exploits of the Japanese army and the humiliating defeats of the Chinese. Large numbers of war triptychs (senso-e) were published and eagerly bought by a proud home front.
Then, around 1900, new reproduction techniques gained the upper hand: lithographs and steel engravings were cheaper and also yielded good results. Moreover, they were “modern”, and that alone held a strong attraction for the Japanese. Publishers of woodblock prints found themselves in a tight spot: they could only compete by producing prints that surpassed those made by modern means. It can be safely stated that the quality of woodblock prints published between 1900 and about 1910 was the highest ever — not necessarily in artistic value (though many fine prints were made), but in technical brilliance. Examples include prints by Yamamoto Shoun (1870–1965), such as his series Ima Sugata, showing bust portraits of contemporary beauties, and most of the prints published by Matsuki Heikichi. Yet the publishers of traditional woodblock prints were fighting a losing battle: far fewer color senso-e were published during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05.
The first decade of the 20th century was a very exciting time for all Japanese artists. There were many movements, shifting allegiances, and constantly changing groups. It was a period of manifestos and of artists forced to make one fundamental choice after another. Many had been to Europe — for them, going abroad was as much an obligation as the Grand Tour to Italy had been for young English gentlemen in the 18th and 19th centuries. Major artists traveled alongside unknown ones.
Takeuchi Seihô (1864–1942), already a famous painter, toured Europe in 1900 and returned in 1901. Japanese artists were well-informed about artistic developments in Europe. A major source of influence was the German magazine Jugend, founded in 1896, which they studied closely. The magazine Hôsun, begun in 1907 by Ishii Hakutei (1882–1958), was directly modeled on Jugend. Some years earlier, in 1904, Ishii had published a print by Yamamoto Kanae (1882–1946) in his magazine Myojo. This print, Gyofu — Picture of a Fisherman — is generally considered the first true Sôsaku Hanga print.
Definition
At this stage, the term Sôsaku Hanga should be explained. It is usually translated as “creative print”, as opposed to commercial print. Commercial prints were still being made by publishers like Matsuki Heikichi, but in 1915 a new and very important player entered the field: Watanabe Shôzaburô (1885–1962). He had started as a publisher of reproductions of classic ukiyo-e prints and therefore had at his disposal a number of highly skilled engravers and printers. What he lacked were artists.
When he saw an exhibition by the relatively unknown Austrian artist Fritz Capelari in 1915, he decided to publish 15 of his designs as woodblock prints. Other artists soon followed: first Charles Bartlett (1860–1940), and then Hashiguchi Goyô (1880–1921), who left after contributing only one design. In 1916, Itô Shinsui (1898–1972) joined Watanabe and stayed with him until 1960. Another major artist associated with Watanabe was Kawase Hasui (1883–1957). Commercially produced prints like these are generally referred to as Shin Hanga — “New Prints”. In fact, Shin Hanga continued where ukiyo-e had ended.
Watanabe Shôzaburô was a businessman (though he also designed a few landscape prints), and that is precisely what Sôsaku Hanga artists were not. They were not concerned with editions or sales; they were primarily experimenting with woodblocks as a means of personal expression. Many prints were produced in only a few copies before the artist moved on to a new idea. Most of the early Sôsaku Hanga artists had been trained as painters, and some made only a small number of woodblock prints before returning to painting. Apart from Ishii Hakutei, Minami Kunzô (1883–1950) is often mentioned in this context. He created a limited number of highly evocative landscape prints closely resembling watercolours, exhibited in a one-man show in 1911 — the first exhibition of its kind in Japan.
The Taishō era, which began in the same year, was a brief but dynamic period in Japan’s modern history, often described as a Japanese version of the Roaring Twenties. Officially lasting from 1912 to 1926 (the reign of Emperor Taishō), the phrase “Taishō culture” evokes a society in transition during the 1920s and early 1930s, when the Western Jazz Age collided with traditional Japanese values of harmony and restraint. As Japan became an international power, the gap between the traditional agricultural population and the modern industrial sector, born during the Meiji era, widened further.
For Sôsaku Hanga artists, this was a crucial period filled with new initiatives and artistic developments. In 1910, a few years earlier, the monthly magazine Shirakaba (White Birch) had been launched — the most influential publication shaping the intellectual life of the Taishō period. Shirakaba also sponsored exhibitions of Western art. In 1915 there was a major exhibition of German Expressionism, mainly woodcuts, which almost coincided with the start of the new magazine Tsukubae in 1914. Tsukubae was founded by Kôshirô Onchi (1891–1955), together with Shizuo Fujimori (1891–1943) and Kyôkichi Tanaka (1892–1915), while they were still students at the Tokyo Art School.
The influence of European art on the Sôsaku Hanga movement was immense. In Europe, printmaking was recognized as a legitimate form of artistic expression, equal to painting or sculpture. In Japan, however, it was still largely regarded as a craft or a means of reproduction. The Shin Hanga published by Watanabe helped elevate the perception of Sôsaku Hanga and brought renewed attention to the art of printmaking.
In 1918, the Nihon Sôsaku Hanga Kyôkai (Japan Creative Print Society) was founded. It became the main organization for creative printmakers until its dissolution in 1931, later reborn as the Nihon Hanga Kyôkai (Japan Print Cooperative Society).
In the 1920s, print magazines played a vital role in giving artists opportunities to show their work. Sôsaku Hanga exhibitions were still rare, and these magazines filled that gap. The most important was Hanga, started by Yamaguchi Hisayoshi in 1924. Owner of Hanga no Ie (“House of Prints”) in Kobe, Yamaguchi had previously published Un’ichi Hiratsuka’s series Tokyo shinsai ato fûkei (Tokyo After the Earthquake, 1923–1927). Hanga, published four times a year, was not a magazine in the usual sense but rather a folder of mounted prints. The prints were small (about 16 × 12 cm), and it is estimated that around 300 subscribers received them. Publication stopped in 1930.
Two important pre-war print series also deserve mention: between 1916 and 1920, the publisher Nakajima Jûtarô produced Nihon fûkei hanga (Print Scenes of Japan), consisting of ten sets of five prints each. Between 1928 and 1932, the same publisher released Shin Tôkyô Hyakkei (One Hundred Views of New Tokyo), with contributions from eight major artists — Senpan Maekawa, Shizuo Fujimori, Kôshirô Onchi, Takashi Henmi, Un’ichi Hiratsuka, Sumio Kawakami, Sakuichi Fukazawa, and Kanenori Suwa — in short, all the key Sôsaku Hanga artists of the pre-war period.
The 1930s were dominated by the Great Depression, which also struck the U.S. and Europe. Nationalism became a dominant force; the military rose to power, political parties weakened, and democratic government virtually disappeared. Yet Sôsaku Hanga artists continued to produce work largely untouched by these political changes. Shin Hanga artists also created important works during this decade, and two major Shin Hanga exhibitions were held in the U.S. (Toledo Art Museum, 1930 and 1936).
The wartime years (1939–1945) marked a turning point for the Sôsaku Hanga movement. The Ichimokukai (“First Thursday Society”) — later crucial to the postwar revival of Japanese prints — was founded in 1939 by the group that met at Kôshirô Onchi’s house in Tokyo. The members met monthly to discuss prints and share ideas. Early participants included Gen Yamaguchi (1896–1976) and Jun’ichirô Sekino (1914–1988). After the war, American connoisseurs Ernst Hacker, William Hartnett and Oliver Statler also joined these meetings, helping to rekindle Western interest in Japanese prints.
Even during the war, in 1944, the first set of prints from the Ichimokushû (“First Thursday Collection”), created by its members to exchange among themselves, was produced — a remarkable act of artistic persistence amid wartime scarcity.
After WWII
One of the most ironic results of Japan’s defeat and subsequent U.S. Occupation was that Americans themselves discovered Sôsaku Hanga and played a crucial role in recognizing and promoting its artistic value. William Hartnett, previously mentioned as one of the Americans attending Ichimokukai meetings after the war, had arrived in Japan with the Occupation forces, where his task was to organize concerts and exhibitions for the personnel. He came into contact with Kôshirô Onchi and his circle of artists — and from there, things quickly developed.
Sôsaku Hanga became highly collectible; prices rose, and for the first time, some artists were able to live from their work. In 1951, two Japanese printmakers — Tetsurô Komai (1920–1976) and Kiyoshi Saitô (1907–1997) — won first prizes at the São Paulo Art Biennale, marking a turning point in the international recognition of modern Japanese printmaking.
In 1959, Oliver Statler published Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn, a seminal book that helped Western audiences appreciate Sôsaku Hanga. A year later, he collaborated on a landmark exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago — Japan’s Modern Prints: Sôsaku Hanga — which displayed 278 works and cemented the movement’s reputation abroad.
In the following decades, Sôsaku Hanga flourished. Many of its artists were remarkably long-lived — Un’ichi Hiratsuka holds the record, having died at age 102, shortly after attending a retrospective of his work — and they continued to produce work of consistently high quality. A younger generation soon followed in their footsteps, ensuring the movement’s vitality well into the late 20th century.
By the last quarter of the century, woodblock prints were still being made in Japan, but many artists had embraced new techniques: screenprints, lithographs, etchings, aquatints, and mezzotints became common. These works gradually integrated into the broader international art world, and the results were no longer uniquely “Japanese” in style.
Today, the legacy continues through a vigorous global movement often called New Hanga — non-Japanese artists creating woodblock prints in the traditional Japanese manner. Among the best examples are Paul Binnie (UK, born 1967) and Tom Kristensen (Australia, born 1962). They are not closing a chapter in a long tradition, but rather expanding it — exploring the boundless creative possibilities of the woodblock medium.
