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- Shin Hanga
Ukiyo-e printing was all but dead by the early twentieth century, and artists were anxious to find a replacement. Their efforts resulted in the shin hanga or New Print movement and the sosaku hanga or Creative Print movement. The shin hanga artists wanted to build on the foundations of the traditional ukiyo-e school using new designs and subjects appropriate to the modern age. They preserved the traditions of working in teamsthat included the artist, an engraver, a printer and sometimes a publisher. The sosaku hanga artists were more profoundly influenced by Western style and techniques, and in most cases worked alone.
The shin hanga movement developed in the period between 1911 and 1920, partly as a result of European interest in ukiyo-e prints. Japanese art circles had a low opinion of ukiyo-e until they discovered the enormous impact of Japanese prints on European Im�pressionist and Post-impressionist painting. Western respect for ukiyo-e led the Japanese elite to take a second look at the old prints and the tradition they represented. Western recognition gave Japanese artists new respect at home and increased their confidence in traditional Japanese art. Artists began to see a value in preserving the legacy of ukiyo-e.
Like ukiyo-e prints, shin hanga prints were produced as popular commercial products. They incorporated classic ukiyo-e subjects such as lovely women, kabuki actors and landscapes. The shin hanga craftsmen in terms of sheer skill were every bit as good as their ukiyo-e counterparts, and succeeded in producing prints as versatile, as sensitive and as fine in composition and in colour.
The shin hanga movement owes a great deal to the publisher Shozaburo Watanabe, who in 1915 began producing prints which recaptured the beauty of the old ukiyo-e prints. After first printing the work of the Austrian artist, Fritz Capelari, Watanabe began working with a host of talented Japanese artists such as Hashi- guchi Goyo, Ito Shinsui, Kawase Hasui, Hiro�shi Yoshida and Natori Shunsen. Unfortunate�ly, Watanabe�s shop was destroyed in the Great Earthquake of 1923. The disaster also destroyed most of Watanabe�s stock of prints and original woodblocks.
�poque et ses paysages inspir�s par les environs de Tokyo sont ses oeuvres les plus puissantes. Certains critiques estiment que la mort de Kiyochika en 1915 marque la fin de la tradition ukiyo-e, tandis que d�autres estiment que c��tait lui le premier des artistes-graveurs modernes du Japon. Kiyochika avait deux disciples dignes de mention, Ryuson et Yasuji.
Au cours de la guerre sino-japonaise (1894- 1895) et la guerre russo-japonaise (1904- 1905), les artistes ukiyo-e ont produit un genre d�estampe appel� senso-e, ou �image de guerre.�� Ces estampes fournissaient au peuple japonais des informations illustr�es sur la guerre, tout en exaltant les succ�s militaires du Japon. Les senso-e sont d�habi�tude des triptyques. Normalement, ces artistes � Kiyochika, Gekko, Kunimatsu et Kokuni- masa [50], par exemple�n�allaient pas au front, mais se fiaient plut�t � l�ou�-dire pour obtenir des renseignements. Tr�s t�t au vingti�me si�cle ces estampes ont �t� rem�plac�es par les photographies de journaux.
L�histoire de la tradition ukiyo-e au Japon explique comment le patrimoine de l�estampe sur bois s�est l�gu� d�une g�n�ration de ma�tres aux �l�ves de la g�n�ration suivante. D�habitude l��l�ve ajoutait la derni�re partie du nom du ma�tre au d�but de son propre nom; souvent, � la mort du ma�tre, le meilleur �l�ve assumait son nom comme signe de fid�lit� et d�engagement envers le style du mentor.
Le rayonnement de la gravure japonaise s��tend �galement � l�Europe o� l�introduction de l�estampe japonaise a directement influ�enc� l��volution de lapeintureeurop�enne�la fin du dix-neuvi�me si�cle.
L�estampe ukiyo-e a fait sa premi�re apparition en Europe au d�but du dix-neuvi�me si�cle, gr�ce aux commer�ants hollandais qui, depuis deux cents ans d�j�, �taient les seuls Occidentaux autoris�s � vivre et � n�gocier au Japon. Selon une th�orie, les Hollandais se seraient servi des estampes comme de papier d�emballage pour prot�ger les envois fragiles de c�ramique japonaise. Un capitaine de la marine hollandaise du nom d�Isaac Titsingh a r�uni une collection d�estampes ukiyo-e qui a fait l�objet d�une exposition � Paris en 1806. Sa collection a attir� l�attention des amateurs d�art, mais au d�but, on jugeait que ces estampes n��taient que de simples curiosit�s. Quelques d�cennies plus tard, pourtant, on ne
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