Shin Hanga Landscapes (20th C.)

The Shin hanga ("new print") movement began in Japan in about 1915 as the brainchild of the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo. In his writings, Watanabe emphasized that the designer of the print –the artist– had total control over the entire process of production, working with the carver and especially the printer as though they were simple extensions of his creative self. Watanabe wrote "In the case of a woodblock print, [the artist]...uses a block instead of a brush...In short, for the artist to express his ideals, the printer and the carver assist his work as though they were his arms and legs, and this means that the artist himself must have a profound knowledge of the print process." (See "The new wave" for quote, page 32). The most important two landscape artists of the 20th century were Kawase Hasui and Yoshida Hiroshi.