- Japanese prints, and Japan in general, are highly popular nowadays
- Japanese printmaking in the first half of the 20th century is relatively unknown
- Growing number of collectors of the genre of shin hanga [modern prints] in the US and in Europe
- Book contains a unique selection of prints, drawn from two private collections, and from the family of publisher Watanabe, who was the driving force behind the new print movement
- Accompanies a traveling exhibition in 3 countries
Twentieth-century Japanese printmaking has come in for relatively little attention. Classic Hokusai and Hiroshige landscapes and Utamaro's beautiful images of women remain the dominant form. All the same, since the 1990s museums and private collectors have shown a growing interest in shin hanga ('new prints'): balanced designs printed on luxurious paper, with the finest pigments and in smaller editions. They are the fruit of the traditional yet highly successful collaboration between artist, publisher, block-cutter and printer. It is not so much in their subject matter as their visual language that shin hanga prints set themselves apart from their traditional precursors.
Where the classically depicted women were stylized and idealized, their more recent counterparts are based on real models, individually recognizable and full of emotion. The modern landscapes, meanwhile, are impressionistic rather than figurative, using a range of color nuances to achieve highly atmospheric results.
This book offers a unique selection with which to explore 20th-century Japanese printmaking. The prints it reproduces are mostly drawn from two large private collections, and, by way of great exception, items from the family collection of the publisher Watanabe, the man who started it all.
