Japanese Wood-Block Prints

By S. Huzikake

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Sep 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473356771

Book preview

JAPANESE

WOOD-BLOCK PRINTS

BY

S. HUZIKAKE

(Translated by M. G. Mori)

By Hokusai Katusika

CONTENTS

Japanese Wood-cuts in Western Countries

Japanese Prints from the 11th to the 16th Century

Copper-plate Prints due to Western Influence

Ukiyo-e (Genre Picture) and Prints

Wood-cuts as an Art for Popular Appreciation

Hisikawa-Moronobu and the Development of Prints

Iwasa-Matabei not the Originator of Ukiyo-e

Hand-coloured Prints

Colour Prints

Nisiki-e, a Japanesque Art

The Golden Age of Japanese Art

Why Japanese Prints are Unique

The Maturity of the Technique

Prints in the Meizi Era

Colour Prints Today

Appendix

Short Bibliography

JAPANESE WOOD-CUTS IN WESTERN COUNTRIES

Japanese wood-cuts are treasured in large numbers, not only in museums and libraries, but also in the houses of individual art-lovers in all the more advanced countries of Europe and America, and many serious students of fine arts in those countries have published the fruits of their detailed researches concerning this Oriental art, so that valuable information regarding Japanese wood-cuts is found in many books and magazine articles published abroad. As a student of Japanese art, I feel bound to express whole-hearted admiration of and gratitude to those Occidental scholars and connoisseurs for their contributions to this interesting field of study.

Among our fine arts, the Japanese print was the earliest to be understood, and the most correctly understood by the Westerner. In fact, our prints first introduced our culture to the rest of the world.

In 1927–8, I travelled extensively in the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy, and returned home after making a tour of India. During this round-the-world trip I inspected a great many works of art, especially Japanese prints treasured in those countries, for I had a special interest in the study of Japanese wood-cuts.

From a numerical point of view the Boston Museum possesses the greatest collection of Japanese prints in the world, while the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris, and not a few other museums also boast of excellent collections. Art-connoisseurs in various countries of Europe and America cherish their Japanese wood-cuts as tenderly as if they were their dear children. When those collectors showed me their prints, handling them so affectionately and lavishing upon each of them their superlative praise, I was most profoundly impressed by their aesthetic ardour and was filled with gratitude towards them for their appreciation of our art. How fortunate these prints are, I often thought, to be thus admired and appreciated abroad as shining examples of the loveliness of Japanese art! For the esteem and tenderness with which they are handled and kept by Occidental collectors far surpassed my wildest expectations.

An Excursion. By Masanobu. (Spaulding Collection, Boston Museum)

JAPANESE PRINTS FROM THE 11TH TO THE 16TH CENTURY

Japanese wood-cuts, which are thus admired and appreciated by intellectuals abroad as superior works of art, are justly regarded as the consummation of the art of chromoxylography. There prevails a wide-spread impression that the Japanese art of picture printing originated in the beginning of the Edo period (1600–1867), because its modern development was closely connected with that of ukiyo-e (a type of genre picture), which began early in the Edo period. In point of fact, however, a study of old specimens that have survived to our own time shows that Japanese wood-cuts were produced as early as the 11th century. At first they represented Buddhist figures. Most of the wooden blocks used in those initial periods ranged from one to six inches in length. Each wooden block was used to produce a considerable number of the same sacred image printed on one sheet of paper, to be used in Buddhist services. Such prints were produced in great numbers during the Heian (794–1185) and Kamakura (1185–1333) periods, notably from the 11th to the 13th century. As a sample of these I suggest a print produced in 1162, representing the Indian deva (or celestial being)