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- Some modern print artists, like Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950) [1], com�bined artistic theories native to the West with traditional techniques rooted in Japan. The result was an updated Westernized version of the traditional ukiyo-e print. Other modern artists, like Goyo Hachiguchi (1886-1921) and Shinsui Ito (1896-1972) [2], tried to revive the ukiyo-e style in their depictions of beauties, and helped create the Shin Hanga or New Print movement, which became popular between the two World Wars.
Also while in the West, Japanese artists made a further discovery that many internationally acclaimed Western artists handled all aspects of the printmaking process from the first sketch to the last pull of the print. This was to have a profound effect on their attitudes, and as a result a new type of printmaker emerged on the Japanese art scene.
This new group of modern Japanese print artists now turned to one-man creations with self-designed, self-carved, self-printed, and mostly self- published prints. Among the great names of this group are Yamamoto Kanae (1882-1946), Onchi Koshiro (1891 -1955) [5], and Hiratsuka Unichi (1895- ) [4], These artists advocated their new approach to printmaking by publishing a magazine called Hosun in 1907, and founded an associa�tion of print artists called Nippon Sosaku Hanga Kyokai in 1918. Their aim was to inform the public of their movement through exhibitions. They played an important role in the development of graphic art prior to World War II, but after the war, until about 1970, they were virtually �the� graphic establishment of Japan. Yamamoto Kanae was the main driving force who first projected the school into the international limelight. He travelled extensively in Europe and produced prints resembling the works of van Gogh and Gauguin. But perhaps the greatest artist of the school was Onchi Koshiro, whose work had a Western appearance and did not reveal the fact that he was Japanese.
This genre of print was such a sharp departure from the Japanese tradition that a new name was coined by the modern printmakers for their art� sosaku hanga or creative print. Each of these words defines their
difference from the traditional ukiyo-e prints. Sosaku means original, creative work. No longer was it necessary for a team effort to produce a print. This new breed of artist felt the need to conceive and produce original works of art entirely with his own mind and hand. The printmaking procedure is a process of creation which the artist feels he cannot delegate, since his own concepts cannot be transferred through several people and still remain his own concepts. He found himself free to express his own highly novel ideas because he was producing the print for himself rather than a publisher who caters to popular taste. The printmaker actually creates his image as he chisels the wood. There was a great advantage in this because the artist could make changes and improve the design at any stage of the carving and printing. The styles and techniques are as numerous and individualistic as the artists them�selves.
Hanga means any sort of a picture reproduction from a block. Therefore,
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