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- Originally the new Japanese art circles had a low opinion of ukiyo-e prints until they discovered the enormous impact they had on European Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting. Western respect for ukiyo-e led the Japanese artistic 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 art. Artists began to see the value in preserving the legacy of ukiyo-e.
Ukiyo-e printing was all but dead by the early 20th century, and Japa�nese artists were anxious to find a replacement. As a result Japanese print�making underwent a renaissance in two movements: the sosaku hanga or Creative Print Movement and the shin hanga or New Print Movement. The sosaku hanga artists were more profoundly influenced by Western style and techniques, and in most cases worked alone. They believed that creative intent could not be transmitted from the artist through profes�sional carvers and printers and that the artist must create the print from start to finish in order to produce the original intention of the artist. 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 custom of working in teams that included the artist, an engraver, a printer and sometimes a publisher. Like ukiyo-e, 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.
Watanabe Shozaburo (1885-1962)
The whole shin hanga movement owes its very existence to one man, a publisher named Watanabe Shozaburo. He started the movement and coined the phase "shin hanga" or New Print.
Watanabe was introduced to ukiyo-e prints at a very early age. When he was only eleven years old, he went to work in an antique store in Yokohama, which specialized in selling ukiyo-e prints to foreigners. Growing up sur�rounded by beautiful ukiyo-e prints, Watanabe came to appreciate the con- sumate skill of the ukiyo-e masters.
In 1910, at the age of 25, he opened up his own antique print shop in Tokyo. Even though Watanabe actively cultivated sales outside Japan, he became quite concerned, and rightly so, that the foreigners were buying up all the finest old prints and Japan was being depleted of its heritage. He hoped that he could educate the Japanese people to appreciate and under-
AGGV COLLECTS/SHIN HANGA 7
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