Adrian Holmes

 WHAT IS SOSAKU HANGA?

In the early 20th century, two distinct modern Japanese print movements emerged. Shin Hanga, or "new print," movement drew inspiration from european Impressionist techniques, employed growing realism, and reimagined popular ukiyo-e subject matter through a modern lens. The Sosaku Hanga, or “creative print,” movement also pulled from an increasingly global artistic vocabulary, drawing heavily from the European avant-garde while honing its focus on the artist and the process of making. Printing became fully participatory, as opposed to the traditional delegation of the printmaking process between artist, engraver, printer and publisher that stretched through ukiyo-e and Shin Hanga.  In the eyes of the Sosaku Hanga movement, the artist must participate in every aspect of production. The knife, the ink, the block, the paper—each material was integral to the artist's experience as a Sosaku Hanga artist.

The creative print movement was one of the many manifestations of the rise of the individual  after decades of modernisation . In both artistic and literary circles, there emerged at the turn of the century expressions of the "self". In its early formative years, the sōsaku-hanga movement, like many other art movements such as the shin-hanga movement struggled to survive, experiment and sought a voice in an art scene dominated by mainstream arts that were well received by the Bunten. Hanga in general (including shin-hanga) did not achieve the status of Western oil paintings (yōga) in Japan. Hanga was considered as a craft that was inferior to painting and sculpure  Ukiyo-e  woodblock  prints had always been considered as mere reproductions for mass commercial consumption, as opposed to the European view of ukiyo-e as art, during the climax of Japonism.  It was impossible for sōsaku-hanga artists to make a living by just doing creative prints.

Many of the later renowned sōsaku-hanga artists, such as Kōshirō Onchi (also known as the father of the creative print movement), were book illustrators and wood carvers. It was not until 1927 that hanga was accepted by the Teiten (the former Bunten). In 1935, extracurricular classes on hangawere finally permitted.But few are familiar with sosaku hanga artists. This does not mean that sosaku hanga prints are cheap and easily available. On the contrary. Collecting sosaku hanga prints is a small but fine and often expensive market niche. The reason are the usually small edition sizes of sosaku hanga versus shin hanga.

Of the individual artists who were part of the sôsaku-hanga movement, the most influential was Kôshirô Onchi, as he influenced several generations of artists, including, Kiyoshi Saito, Un'ichi Hiratsuka, Jun'ichiro Sekino, Gen Yamaguchi, Rikio Takahashi, Haku Maki, and Masaj Yoshida. and many more