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Edutainment > Sosaku Hanga

The traditional Japanese woodblock print was the result of a cooperation of several persons with very different skills - the artist, the block carver, the printer and the publisher. The sosaku hanga ("creative prints") art movement was formally established with the formation of the Japanese Creative Print Society in 1918.

It followed Western ideals in believing that the artist should be involved actively and in person in the printmaking process from the design to the finished product.

First Publication: April 2002
Latest Update:

Video - Introducing Sosaku Hanga

I have made this litte video a few years ago.

The Great Ukiyo-e Crisis

At the beginning of the twentieth century the tradition of Japanese woodblock printmaking was in crisis. Until the end of the nineteenth century Japanese woodblock printmaking was seen as commercial art.

Woodblock printmakers got their commissions from kabuki theaters, restaurant owners and from newspaper and book publishers. The main purpose of traditional printmaking was advertising, decoration and illustration.

With the swift modernization of Japan and especially with the use of photography for newspaper illustrations and advertising, the tradition of ukiyo-e had become an endangered species within a few years.

Shin Hanga versus Sosaku Hanga

From around 1915 on two new art movements in printmaking came out of the ashes - the shin hanga "new prints") and the sosaku hanga movement. The shin hanga art movement was basically a modernization of the traditional Japanese printmaking - cautiously adding some Western elements like the effect of light and Western perspective. Shin hanga used the same subjects as before - beautiful women, actor portraits and landscapes.

Shin hanga artists tried to transform what used to have been a cheap commercial product for the masses to an expensive product of art for a few collectors and art enthusiasts. The funny thing was that shin hanga sold well - but not in Japan. The prints were exported mainly to North America. And the Japanese artists undoubtedly targeted the taste of the export market by using pleasing, "typical" Japanese subjects and soft colors.

The Do it Yourself Guys

The sosaku hanga prints were a product of the westernization of Japan which had set in with the Meiji period (1868-1912). Japan had called for Western scientists, scholars and artists. Many taught at Japanese universities. And Japanese students had been sent abroad with state scholarships on official missions to study Western methods - also in the field of arts.

The sosaku hanga movement had adopted the concept of the Western ideal of art as the product of the creativity of a genius - the artist. Creative prints versus artisan prints!

The subjects and looks of sosaku hanga followed modern Western trends in art with a few exceptions like Sekino Junichiro.

Sosaku Hanga Artists

Here are some names of sosaku hanga artists. By the way, the list looks like the answer to the secret of a long life.

• Azechi Umetaro 1902-1999
• Fumio Kitaoka born 1918
• Hiratsuka Unichi 1895-1997
• Masao Maeda 1904-1974
• Onchi Koshiro 1891-1955
• Saito Kiyoshi 1907-1997
• Sekino Junichiro 1914-1988
• Shiko Munakata 1903-1975
• Tomikichiro Tokuriki 1902-1999
• Toshiro Maeda 1904-1990
• Watanabe Sadao 1913-1996
• Yoshitoshi Mori 1898-1992

Collecting Sosaku Hanga

While shin hanga became quite successful, the sosaku hanga art movement had a hard time to gain public popularity. Every ukiyo-e newbie collector is familiar with the names of shin hanga artists like Hasui Kawase, Hiroshi Yoshida, Toshi Yoshida, Ohara Koson, Natori Shunsen or Ito Shinsui. But few are familiar with sosaku hanga artists. This does not mean that sosaku hanga prints are cheap and easily available. Collecting sosaku hanga prints is a small but fine and often expensive market niche. The reason are the usually small edition sizes of sosaku hanga versus shin hanga.

The situation is best characterized by the artist Tomikichiro Tokuriki. He was a passionate sosaku hanga artist. But he made his living with shin hanga style prints, which he contemptuously called publisher artisan prints. He once said in an interview:

"I'd rather do nothing but creative prints, but after all, I sell maybe ten of them against two hundred for a publisher-artisan print."

Other Pages Related to Sosaku Hanga

• Customs of Japan
• Hanga - Japanese Prints
• Hide Kawanishi - 1894-1965
• Introduction to Japanese Prints - Part II
• Ishii Hakutei - 1882-1958
• Japanese Prints in the 20th Century.
• Junichiro Sekino 1914-1988
• Kanae Yamamoto - 1882-1946
• Kishio Koizumi - 1893-1945
• Kiyoshi Saito - 1907-1997
• Koshiro Onchi - 1891-1955
• Maekawa Senpan - - 1888-1960
• Masao Maeda - 1904-1974
• Modern Chinese Prints
• Okiie Hashimoto 1899-1993
• Sosaku Hanga
• Sosaku Hanga Artists
• Sumio Kawakami - 1895-1972
• Tom Kristensen - born 1962
• Tomikichiro Tokuriki - 1902-1999
• Tomoo Inagaki - 1902-1980
• Toshikata Mizuno - 1866-1908
• Unichi Hiratsuka 1895-1997
• Utamaro No Shunga
• Zhao Rigetu

Author: Dieter Wanczura

External References

• Sosaku Hanga Net

Literature sources

• Helen Merritt, "Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints - The early years", published by University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1990, ISBN 0-8248-1200-X
• Oliver Statler, "Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn", C. Tuttle, Tokyo, 1956, ISBN No. is 0-8048-0406-0

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