more prints that will carry you a little closer to your goal, and I shall write a book or two which I hope will be good. We shall be a world apart, but we shall be working side by side, each helping the other."
Half of my mature intellectual life has been built around this group of men. I have written books which have helped carry their fame to the world; but I have received so much more from them than I have been able to give that at the present casting up of accounts I must owe them at least half of whatever I have been able to accomplish. Wherever I go, I keep their prints upon my wall so that I shall be constantly reminded of this debt.
It is important to record that my affection for this school of artists is neither capricious nor accidental. I did not stumble upon their prints with an untutored eye, to be bedazzled by the first bright art I saw. I served a long apprenticeship in European art and, had I had the funds when I lived so intimately amongst it, I would have collected Renoirs and Vlamincks and Chagalls and Chiricos, for my taste has always inclined that way. Also, before I saw my first contemporary Japanese print I had acquired a substantial collection of the old masterpieces done by classical artists like Utamaro, Sharaku, Hokusai, and Hiroshige. I was therefore schooled in both the best of European oil painting and the best of Japanese woodblock design.
But it was the impact of this bold new world of Japanese prints done in the full European tradition, yet combining many of the Oriental values of the past, that quite stunned me. I was at an age of my own development when I hungrily required such an experience, and it was fortunate for me that I came upon Onchi and Hiratsuka and Azechi—to name only three—when I did. I cannot specify exactly what they meant to me, what significance they held and still hold, but I suppose their impact derived from three factors. First, they refreshed my education in design, and anyone who wants to work in any of the arts had better know all about that fundamental component that he can master, for the design of a good print poses exactly the same problem as the design of a good string quartet or a decent novel. Second, these artists taught me how exciting it is to experiment in new fields and to exercise the mind to its fullest. Third, they showed me better than I had seen before or have seen since what dedication to art means.
Before these men I am contrite. A life in art for them has been so unjustly difficult, and for me so unexpectedly easy, that a moral chasm exists between us that only contrition can bridge. I suppose that if I had been born a Japanese with an artistic drive toward the creation of excellent form and color I might have had the courage these men have had. But I cannot be sure. Therefore, since they have played so important a role in my education, I have come to think of them with envy and admiration.
This book is an attempt to express that admiration.
In the commentaries that follow, the technical information given on the page facing each print has been based on data supplied by the artists themselves. My own remarks, as will be seen, are more subjective in nature. The contest in which these ten prints were chosen is described in the concluding section of this book.
LAKESIDE AT THE BYODO-IN
by HIRATSUKA UN'ICHI
T HAT one soft-spoken old man dressed in a Russian-type smock should have been able to capture in one print the essence of things Japanese must remain a miracle. Yet here in this apparently simple work Hiratsuka Un'ichi has imprisoned much of the timeless beauty that characterizes Japan.
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