Japanese prints drew me to Victoria in the first place. In picture books, I’d seen The Great Wave, that famous print by Hokusai, and learned that the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria had Canada’s leading collection of art from Japan. Subsequently, I came to Victoria and for the first few years worked at the gallery. One day, I noticed some attractive and more modern prints.
“Just tourist stuff,” the director sniffed.
But I was hooked. These prints from the 1920s and 1930s were beautiful, the sort of thing that Canadian artist Walter J. Phillips modelled his art upon. I began buying prints at auction, and set about learning more.
Though colour woodcut prints were a hit in Paris at the time of the Impressionists, they were of no consequence in Japan — trash from the merchant class. At first, in the 18th century, they had depicted stars of the kabuki theatre and beauties of the entertainment district, and were beneath the notice of the samurai dictatorship.
Later, the ruling class enacted sumptuary laws that forbade low-life scenes or political commentary, so in the 1830s the printmakers turned their attention to landscape — the 100 Views of Mount Fuji and so on. When the West pried open Japan in the 1860s, the glory of the ukiyo-e prints was deemed to be past.
But the printmakers continued, producing intricate scenes of historical battles, views from the newly opened western world, and lurid triptychs representing the battle news from the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars. And when, with the coming of the 20th century, photography superseded woodcut illustrations in the popular press, it was thought to be all over.
At that time, Watanabe Shozaburo had been making a good business of reprinting famous images of the past for tourists in Yokohama and then Tokyo. When he lost his stock of prints and his blocks in the 1923 earthquake, he decided to try something different.
Employing craftsmen trained in the old tradition, he made prints designed by contemporary Japanese artists who were inspired by Western painting. The result was a sublime blend of Western scenery imbued with a subtle Japanese mood. These images caught on with visitors to Japan, and in 1930 were presented in a huge exhibition to print collectors in America — in Toledo, Ohio, to be precise. And the Shin Hanga (“new print”) movement was underway.
Woodcut technology can create coloured prints that are more richly resonant art than the more familiar engraving, etching or lithography. Printing blocks are carved in the plank side of cherry wood. These are basted with colours suspended in a rice-paste medium, and then printed on handmade paper made of fibres from inside the bark of the mulberry tree. Damp when printed, this paper absorbs the colours, resulting in a softly glowing effect.
Printed by hand pressure, the wood blocks emboss patterns in the paper, and some prints have crushed mica dust incorporated into the background for a sparkling effect. The full repertoire of subtle techniques treasured in the rare old prints, such as fading colours and blacks mixed with glossy medium, was now available in fresh new versions. And the designer team that produced these prints — including publisher, artists, woodcutters and printers — were every bit as wonderful as the old masters.
A full range of subjects were offered to the public by Watanabe and his rivals. The current show presents a tasteful selection of bird subjects, flowers, actors and beauties, as well as those unforgettable landscapes. Here is a treasure trove of inspiration.
Next to a print of blackbirds set against a sunset sky, Ohara Shoson presents two white cranes in an inky night. Ravishing! Chrysanthemum and delicate hydrangea are achieved with a memorable composition. Inspired by classic masters Sharaku and Utamaro, the Shin Hanga artist Natori Shunsen created stunning character studies using the slightest materials. Always up to date, the modern prints depicted seductively fashionable women with bobbed hair and cigarettes.
Since the 1980s, these prints have grown in popularity. Curator Barry Till, always ahead of the game, has assembled hundreds of Shin Hanga prints for the gallery, and this show presents a new understanding of the subject. The history of Shin Hanga is only now being written, and good prints are as likely to show up on Fort Street as anywhere else in the world.
Much of Victoria’s Shin Hanga collection has been published by Pomegranate Communications of Portland, Oregon, to illustrate the book Haiku: Japanese Art and Poetry by Judith Patt et al. The history of the movement is also documented in Shin Hanga: The New Print Movement of Japan by Barry Till. And the gallery’s collection is the source for an annual calendar Haiku: Japanese Art and Poetry, with selected poems brushed by Michiko Warkentyne of Victoria.
For the serious student of Shin Hanga, the Toledo Museum of Art has just published Fresh Impressions: Early Modern Japanese Prints. It is based on that museum’s unique group of Shin Hanga, comprising 343 prints by 10 artists, which were shown there in 1930. That collection was purchased in its entirety at the time, and is now published in an authoritative book that explores the subject in 352 pages with 343 colour illustrations. Fresh Impressions is sure to become a standard reference on the Shin Hanga and it is also a simple delight for anyone who enjoys poring over a beautiful picture book.
Haiku: Japanese Art and Poetry, Judith Patt et al, Pomegranate Communications, Portland, Oregon, 2010, $29.95.
Shin Hanga: The New Print Movement in Japan, Barry Till, Pomegranate Communications, Portland, Oregon, 2007, $29.95.
Fresh Impressions: Early Modern Japanese Prints by Kendall H. Brown et al, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, 2014, $49.45.
Shin Hanga: The New Print Movement of Early 20th Century Japan, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1040 Moss St., 250-384-4171, aggv.bc.ca, through Jan. 25.