Sōsaku-hanga: Japan's Creative Print Movement
In traditional ukiyo-e, an artist designed a print, a carver cut the blocks, a printer printed them and a publisher sold them. In the early twentieth century a group of Japanese artists rejected that division of labour. They would draw, carve and print their work themselves. Their movement, sōsaku-hanga or creative prints, made the Japanese woodblock a modern art form.
The ideals
The movement's principle is often summed up as self-drawn, self-carved, self-printed. The artist's hand was to be visible in every stage. Many artists embraced the marks of carving and the texture of wood, rather than hiding them, and some printed in very small numbers.
Beginnings
Yamamoto Kanae's print of a fisherman, published in 1904, is often cited as the first creative print. In 1918 the Japan Creative Print Association was founded, and the movement grew through the 1920s and 1930s alongside its rival, the publisher-led shin-hanga movement. Read Shin-hanga Woodblock Prints for the other path.
Key artists
- Onchi Kōshirō (1891–1955): pioneer of abstraction in Japanese prints.
- Hiratsuka Un'ichi (1895–1997): bold black-and-white prints of temples and landscapes.
- Munakata Shikō (1903–1975): powerful, devotional images carved with astonishing speed.
- Saito Kiyoshi (1907–1997): whose prize at the São Paulo Biennial in 1951 helped bring creative prints to international attention.
- Azechi Umetarō (1902–1999): mountain climbers and alpine scenes.
The post-war boom
After 1945, creative prints found eager buyers among Westerners in Japan and abroad. Many artists printed for this audience, and prints of the 1950s and 1960s are now widely collected.
What collectors look for
- Signature and seal: often in pencil and the artist's seal; edition numbers became more common after the war.
- Printing: texture, wood grain and the artist's handling of colour.
- Edition size: early prints were often made in tiny numbers.
- Condition: paper toning, foxing and fading.
Questions collectors ask
Is sōsaku-hanga more valuable than shin-hanga?
Neither is inherently so; each has its stars. Rarity and quality decide.
Did creative printmakers ever use assistants?
Some did as their fame grew, especially for larger editions. The ideal remained the artist's hand.