Shin hanga

also: 新版画 · New prints

movement c. 1915-1960 Japan United States

Shin-hanga ('new prints') was an early twentieth-century movement that revitalized ukiyo-e woodblock printing during the Taishō and Shōwa periods while keeping its traditional collaborative workshop (hanmoto) system of artist, carver, printer, and publisher. It was launched and nurtured by the publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō, who from about 1915 recruited painters - beginning with the European residents Friedrich Capelari and Charles W. Bartlett - to design prints with a modern sensibility. Where ukiyo-e followed stylized conventions, shin-hanga absorbed Western-style light, atmosphere, and individual mood, using new printing effects such as deliberate baren marks and speckled goma-zuri. Themes stayed traditional: landscapes, famous places, beautiful women, kabuki actors, and birds and flowers. Beloved by Western collectors and largely exported, it flourished to 1942, revived after the war, and today commands passionate followings for artists like Kawase Hasui.

The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)
The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)Public domain (credit: Johann Zoffany) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Traditional hanmoto division of labor: artist, carver, printer, and publisher working as a team
  • Western-style light, shadow, and atmospheric effects painted into the design
  • Lyrical individual mood and nostalgia over ukiyo-e's stylized conventions
  • Traditional themes: landscapes, famous places, beauties, kabuki actors, birds and flowers
  • Printed textures from deliberate baren marks and speckled goma-zuri on thick paper
  • Rich, saturated color answering Western collectors' romantic taste for old Japan

Key figures

  • Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885-1962) — Publisher who initiated and drove the movement from his Tokyo workshop
  • Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) — Prolific landscape designer of nearly a thousand prints, later a Living National Treasure
  • Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) — Landscape artist who organized major shin-hanga exhibitions in the United States
  • Itō Shinsui (1898-1972) — Master of bijin-ga whose Before the Mirror opened Watanabe's modern line
  • Ohara Koson (1877-1945) — Kachō-ga specialist whose bird-and-flower prints were hugely popular abroad

Example works

  • Before the Mirror — Itō Shinsui (1916)
  • Zōjō-ji Temple in Shiba — Kawase Hasui (1925)
  • Moon at Magome — Kawase Hasui (1930)

Sources

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