Prints Charming: How France Influenced the Art of Japan's Shin Hanga Movement
The Shin Hanga movement in Japan, which emerged in the late 19th/early 20th century, was heavily influenced by French art and printmaking techniques. Shin Hanga was characterized by its focus on traditional Japanese subjects such as landscapes, nature, and women, but it incorporated elements of European art movements like Impressionism. The artists of the Shin Hanga movement were drawn to the vibrant colors, loose brushwork, and atmospheric effects of French Impressionist paintings. These artists sought to capture the fleeting beauty of nature and evoke a sense of mood and atmosphere in their prints, similar to the techniques employed by Impressionist artists.
There was a mutual fascination between French Impressionist artists and Japanese printmakers during this time. The opening of Japan to the outside world in the 19th century produced a wave of interest in Japanese art and culture, and French artists began incorporating elements of ukiyo-e into their own works. French Impressionist artists, such as Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, were inspired by Japanese woodblock prints known as ukiyo-e. They admired the bold compositions, simplified forms, and decorative patterns found in ukiyo-e prints. Vincent van Gogh created a number of works which were his attempt to replicate specific ukiyo-e prints.
Similarly, Japanese artists were inspired by novel French art and printmaking techniques that they were exposed to by the newly opened lines of trade. Prior to the opening of Japan which followed the arrival of US Commodore Matthew Perry in 1854, Japanese art had been relatively isolated from Western influences. The country was effectively closed to outside influence during the "sakoku" period which continued from around 1633 until Perry's arrival. The only source of outside information was filtered through the Dutch and Chinese trade concessions at Dejima, an artificial island in Nagasaki harbor. During this period, the Japanese were exposed to some Western art forms, including Dutch botanical prints and Chinese landscape paintings. However, it was the arrival of French art and printmaking techniques in the late 19th and early 20th century that had a profound impact. It was during this time that the Shin Hanga movement emerged in Japan, influenced by the French Impressionist style.
"Shin" means "New," and "hanga" refers to "prints" in Japanese. Print making had experienced major development during the period of the closed country, with the prints being made by teams of artists, with a major creative head overseeing the process and ensuring the final product met the desired standards. The most famous of these are known to us in the west, including Hokusai (The Great Wave Off Kanagawa), Utamaro (Known for his illustrations of beautiful women), and Hiroshige (whose Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi and Plum Garden in Kameido were copied by van Gogh in oil, including nonsense characters around the edge (van Gogh never learned to read or write Japanese).
As Japan Westernized, it went through a period of intensive adoption of Western culture, many times to the point of throwing away their own traditions in favor of the perceived superiority of Western ideas and practices. However some wanted to find a way to blend the best of the two cultures, and this is where the influence of French art on the Shin Hanga movement comes into play.
One of the most important figures in the development of the Shin Hanga movement in Japan was Watanabe Shozaburo. Watanabe Shozaburo was an art dealer in Tokyo who played a crucial role. While he never traveled outside Japan during his lifetime, he had worked for an import/export company, and he developed a keen sense of Western techniques which would work well in Japanese-themed art. His company intially focused on reproductions of famous Japanese woodblock prints. However he realized that the demand for prints was primarily outside of Japan, particularly in the United States, and there needed to be new works which would appeal to foreign customers. Initially, he enlisted foreign artists residing in Japan, like Fritz Capelari, Charles William Bartlett, Cyrus Baldridge, and Elizabeth Keith. However he soon shifted to Japanese artists who had studied Western techniques, like Kawase Hasui, Ito Shinsui, Tsuchiya Koitsu, Shotei, and Ohara Koson.
Tokyo and Kyoto became the centers of the new art form of Shin Hanga. In Tokyo, several publishers sprang up, and Hasui and others worked with different publishing houses, a significant shift from the practice during the ukiyo-e era, when artists produced primarily from one house, which they often owned.
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Yoshida Hiroshi, a famous Shin Hanga artist, started as a painter, but switched to woodblock printmaking in his 40s. He took an extended trip to the US in the mid-1920s, after which he established his own publishing company, which continues today.
In Kyoto, many Shin Hanga artists began to tire of the set subjects and composition that Shin Hanga prints had fallen into. They were designed to maximize the interest (and sale-ability) to foreign tourists, and made quite a bit of money for the artists. However, some artists felt that the prints lacked originality and artistic expression, and created a new movement called "Sosaku Hanga." Sosaku Hanga were produced under the principles of self-expression, and created from art that was self-drawn, self-carved, and self-printed. As an example, prolific artist Tokuriki Tomikichiro produced dozens of Shin Hanga prints, but when interviewed, he expressed a preference for Sosaku Hanga, referring to Shin Hanga disdainfully as "artisan prints."
Kasamatsu Shiro is another significant artist in the Shin Hanga and Sosaku Hanga movements. He apprenticed under a woodblock print maker known for "bijin-ga" or pictures of beautiful women. However he personally had a strong interest in doing landscapes and cityscapes, which became his main focus in the Shin Hanga movement. All the woodblocks from his early career were destroyed by the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 in the ensuing city-wide fires. But Kasamatsu persevered and continued to create woodblock prints, producing 50 prints for Watanabe Shozaburo, before he switched to publisher Unsodo and produced 102 prints for them. He also created his own publishing house and made nearly 80 sosaku hanga.
The Shin Hanga movement, bridging the late 19th and early 20th centuries, stands as a significant cultural phenomenon that exemplified the fruitful exchange between Japanese and Western art traditions, particularly with French Impressionism. It highlighted the ability of art to transcend cultural boundaries, as Japanese artists incorporated European techniques to revitalize traditional themes with new vibrancy, depth, and emotion. Pioneers like Watanabe Shozaburo facilitated this blend, fostering an international appreciation for Shin Hanga that balanced modernity with tradition. The movement not only enriched the global art landscape but also underscored the dynamic dialogue between East and West, demonstrating how mutual admiration and influence can lead to the creation of profound beauty and innovation in art. As such, Shin Hanga represents a unique moment in art history where cross-cultural collaboration yielded a legacy of works that continue to captivate and inspire across time and borders.
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