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The
Artists
The printmakers who produced the New
Tokyo series were all part of the sosaku hanga or "creative
print" movement. Their style and approach differed from
the traditional Japanese practice of woodblock printmaking
in which a publisher, artist, block carver, and printer worked
jointly to create a print. Artists of the creative print
movement worked directly with the materials, carving and
printing their own designs. They looked on the medium as
an authentic means of personal artistic expression. As a
group, they had collaborated informally on various projects,
calling themselves the Takujoshha, or "On the
Table Group."
They gave exhibitions and published
a small magazine. One Hundred Views of New Tokyo was
their greatest and most enduring success.
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Maekawa
Senpan
1889-1960
Born in Kyoto, Maekawa moved to Tokyo
in 1911 and began a long career as a cartoonist and illustrator.
A self-taught printmaker, he exhibited in the first Creative
Print Association exhibition in 1919 and was a member of
the Japanese Print Association from 1931 to 1960. Maekawa
also participated in the publication of a number of major
series with his printmaking contemporaries. He first exhibited
abroad in 1953, and late in his career enjoyed recognition
as a printmaker among Western collectors.
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Fujimori
Shizuo
1891-1943
While still a student at the Tokyo Art
School in 1914, Fujimori, together with Onchi (below), was
one of the founders of Tsukubae, a seminal artistic
and literary journal that published prints by sosaku hanga (creative
print) artists. After spending several years as an art teacher
in Fukuoka and Taiwan, Fujimori returned to Tokyo and worked
as a painter, printmaker, and illustrator. He maintained
a close relationship with Onchi throughout his career.
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Onchi
Koshiro
1891-1955
Onchi was undoubtedly the most important
printmaker in the sosaku hanga movement. He began
to make prints in an abstract style as early as the 'teens,
and in 1914 was co-founder (with Fujimori and Tanaka Kyochiki)
of the seminal print and poetry magazine Tsukubae.
He was a founder of the Creative Print Association in 1918.
At that time, he also began his career as a book designer.
During the course of his career, he designed more than 1,000
volumes. Onchi was one of the organizers of the One Hundred
Views of New Tokyo project, as well as a major contributor
to other print series in the 1930s. After the war, Onchi
became the central figure in the creative print movement
and influenced an entire generation of print artists. Onchi
was also active as a poet, magazine editor, and critic.
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Henmi
Takashi
1895-1944
Henmi arrived in Tokyo from his native Wakayama in 1912 to study
at Tokyo Polytechnic School. He made his living as an accountant,
but taught himself to make prints and became a dedicated amateur.
He devoted much of his spare time to poetry and to printmaking and
was a regular contributor to the Creative Print Association exhibitions
and magazines. Henmi is best known for the thirteen prints he contributed
to the New Tokyo series.
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Hiratsuka
Un'ichi
1895-1997
Hiratsuka enjoyed a long career as an influential printmaker. He
first went to Tokyo in 1915 to study Western painting and learned
the art of block carving from a professional craftsman. He began
to exhibit prints in 1916. By the 1920s, inspired by the early Buddhist
woodcuts he had begun to collect, Hiratsuka had adopted his signature,
bold black-and-white technique. He continued to produce color prints,
such as those in the New Tokyo series. Hiratsuka taught the
first course in woodblock printing offered at the Tokyo School of
Fine Arts and in 1948 opened his own school in Tokyo. Through his
teaching and his long and active career, Hiratsuka influenced many
important printmakers. After 1962, he lived in Washington, D.C.,
with his daughter.
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Kawakami
Sumio
1895-1972
Kawakami was born in Yokohama, which during the Meiji period ( )
was a Western enclave. He had a life-long interest in the mixture
of Japanese and Western culture. As a young man, he spent a year
in Alaska and Washington state learning English. On his return to
Japan in 1918, Kawakami began to exhibit with the print societies.
In 1921, he moved to Tsuruda, a small town northeast of Tokyo, where
he taught English and made prints in his spare time. His teaching
job was terminated during the war, and he and his wife took refuge
in Hokkaido, where they remained until 1949. Thereafter, Kawakami
resumed teaching English in the town of Tsuruda while continuing
to work as a printmaker. Kawakami considered himself an amateur,
and characteristically gave away his prints. In 1958 the Mingei Society
of Tochigi prefecture sponsored his first solo exhibition.
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Fukazawa
Sakuichi
1896-1947
Fukazawa moved to Tokyo with his family as child. He began to learn
woodblock printing in about 1918 and exhibited at the Creative Print
Association in 1922. A founding member of the Japan Print Association
in 1931, he was a frequent contributor to specialized magazines that
published woodblock prints. He also designed book covers for Western-style
books.
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Suwa
Kanenori
1897-1932
Orphaned as a child, Kanenori spent his youth in the city of Kobe.
He began making prints as a teenager and moved to Tokyo at seventeen,
entering the Hongo Painting Institute (1914). He first exhibited
with the Creative Print Association in 1921, the year he joined the
Shiseido company. In 1924, Suwa participated, together with a number
of other sosaku hanga artists, in an exhibition that also
included the works of such Western printmakers as Kaethe Kollwitz,
Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Marc Chagall. He was particularly
interested in the internationalization of Japanese art. Suwa was
also active as a watercolorist.
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Footnote:
Biographical information derived from
Helen Merritt, Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: The Early Years.
University of Hawaii Press, 1990
Lawrence Smith, Modern Japanese Prints, 1912-1989. London,
British Museum Press, 1994
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