was perfected whereby colors could be applied not by hand but by block printing, but for nearly fifty years the resulting prints were limited to only two or three different colors, since registry of the colors from block to block was haphazard.
Even in these early days of the art a unique tradition characterized its technique: the artist drew the design, a woodcarver cut the blocks, a printer colored the blocks and struck off the finished prints. Invariably these jobs were done by three separate men. Sometime near 1765 the printers who worked with the famous artist Harunobu perfected a system which assured accurate registry for any number of blocks, and the great classic color prints, sometimes consisting of twenty different colors applied each from its own block, were possible. From this culminating period—roughly from 1765 to 1850—came the great names of Japanese color prints: Harunobu, Kiyonaga, Utamaro, Sharaku, Hokusai, and Hiroshige.
Magnificent work was accomplished by these men. Design was impeccable; color was subtle; execution was of a quality that has never been equaled. Starting in the 1820's, samples of the greatest previous work began filtering into Europe, and in the 1850's many leaders of the French impressionist school were already connoisseurs. The impact of Oriental prints upon the work of artists like Degas, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Matisse is well known. Gauguin writes that when he fled to the South Pacific he took along a bundle of Japanese prints. Without the lessons taught by the Oriental artists, some of the innovations perfected by the impressionists might have been impossible.
But by the beginning of the twentieth century the vitality of the classical school had dissipated, and although there were skilled workmen still trying to accommodate the old techniques to the burgeoning artistic ideas of a new Japan, and although a few fine prints were still issued each year, it was apparent to all that the art of the old-style Japanese woodblock was moribund.
In the early years of the twentieth century a group of experiment-minded young Japanese decided that if their nation was to achieve a vital art, its artists would have to develop new forms comparable to those that had swept the Western world. The impact of this thinking was greatest, perhaps, in the field of oil painting, but more fruitful, possibly, in the inspired work done by a group of woodblock artists, for in this medium the best of the old tradition—fine draftsmanship, excellent design, and the world's best woodcarving—could be preserved and wedded to strong new content. One firm principle was developed: in contrast to the classical system in which the artist merely designed the print, leaving the carving of the blocks to one technician and the printing to another, the newer print artists preached that the artist himself must do the designing, carving, and printing. A new term was devised to describe such a print— sosaku hanga, meaning "creative print," the characters for which have, incidentally, been used as a title-page decoration and are also repeated in the water-mark of the handmade Japanese paper in this book.
If one had to select one man who best exemplified these ideas, he might well choose Yamamoto Kanae (1882-1946), who studied in Japan, traveled widely in Europe, and issued a small number of prints that look as if they had been done by either Van Gogh or Gauguin. I have not seen all of Yamamoto's work, but so far I have never encountered any of his prints whose subject matter reveals that they were made by a Japanese. Almost singlehandedly he projected the modern print school into full international orbit.
The greatest artist produced by the school was Onchi Koshiro (1891-1955), a superb abstractionist who will ultimately stand beside European artists like Klee and Braque. Again, I cannot recall any of his important work that reveals in its subject matter any Oriental derivation. Onchi was an admirable artist, formed by the technical precepts of Yamamoto and the artistic impact of men like Munch of Norway, Kokoschka of Vienna, Van Gogh of Amsterdam, and Kandinsky of Berlin. His best prints are soaring poems reflecting the life of the spirit, and he set his imprint on an entire group of contemporaries.
But at the same time there were other artists who remained indifferent to Onchi's development, and these men worked out a much different approach to both art and subject matter. Hiratsuka Un'ichi, born four years later than Onchi, found that he was attracted to the simplified techniques used by the beginners of the classical school in 1650 and, using these antique processes, he began producing majestic prints in black and white. Connoisseurs quickly discovered how effective such work could be, and since Hiratsuka often chose for his subject matter the timeless architecture of Japan, his prints encouraged nostalgia.
Hiratsuka's technique was quickly adopted by the fire brand of the movement, Munakata Shiko (born 1903), whose rudely-carved Buddhist deities are the towering accomplishment of the black-and-white branch of the school. Better known abroad than Onchi, Munakata is held by most Western critics to be one of the most powerful artists working today.
After these two basic approaches to art had been established, a rich proliferation of technique and subject developed. As the prints in this book show, the contemporary Japanese print artist has the entire world of design to choose from, a subject matter that can be either traditional Japanese or avant-garde abstraction, a palette that ranges the entire color spectrum, and the freedom to use for his blocks any material that will yield a good impression: concrete, paper stencil, glass, realia such as leaves or shoe heels, hand rubbing, waxed paper, modern plywood, and, of course, the traditional block of cherry on which the classical prints were customarily carved.
In studying the work of this school we are watching a group of gifted artists who have been set free, who are no longer imprisoned in the conventions of one small island, and who have made themselves full-fledged citizens of the world. At the same time they remain the inheritors of a permanent tradition, and it is this interplay between the old and the new, between the inner world of Japan and the outer world of Paris, that makes the school so fascinating.
This modern school increases yearly, both in numbers and in versatility. I wish many more of its artists could have graced this volume. Aside from the ten here included and those great names already mentioned, I should like to list a few more who have particularly appealed to me; I can heartily recommend their work to the reader interested in seeing more of this exciting art:
HAGIWARA HIDEO (b. 1913) has produced a striking new kind of work which has won great favor from critics and public alike. With dark, iridescent colors superimposed upon flawless abstract design, he constructs prints that vibrate and give the impression of solid artistic control.
HASHIMOTO OKIIE (b. 1899) specializes in handsomely controlled depictions of Japan's medieval castles, done in great style, with commanding color. His prints are best when hung like Western oils.
HATSUYAMA SHIGERU (b. 1897). An illustrator of children's books, and one of the very best in Asia, Hatsuyama makes a few prints each year, but only as an avocation. They are the most poetic, the most unearthly, and the most subtly enjoyable of the work being done by the contemporaries. Like Klee, Hatsuyama has a private vision of the world, and his prints give exquisite fleeting glimpses of it.
INAGAKI TOMOO (b. 1902) has gained international notice for his highly symbolic studies of cats. An admirable draftsman, he catches the mood of nature in prints that are instantly attractive.
KAWAKAMI SUMIO (b. 1895). A wide audience has been built for his sardonic burlesques of events that occurred in Japan during the days when Europeans were first arriving with outlandish clothes and customs. These saucy prints are thoroughly delightful in a mock-archaic way.
KAWANISHI HIDE (b. 1894). His brightly colored scenes of circuses, harbor life in the port city of Kobe, and restful flower-decked interiors are marked by strong individuality both in palette and in flatness of execution. These are among the most colorful prints produced by the school.
KAWANO KAORU (b. 1916), starting much later than most of his contemporaries, began by issuing a series of prints which gained immediate popular acceptance. They show children caught up in everyday experiences yet depicted in a manner that is shot through with fantasy and loveliness. In any exhibition of contemporary
