HANGA NO TSUKURIKATA [How to Make a Woodblock Print]

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HANGA NO TSUKURIKATA [How to Make a Woodblock Print]

By 恩地孝四郎 [Onchi Koshiro]

[circa late 1920s]

Early Shōwa period educational guide to making woodblock prints from a leading artist of Sōsaku-hanga, the modern art movement favoring a more creative approach to the medium.

Very good.

Price: $500.00

HANGA NO TSUKURIKATA [How to Make a Woodblock Print]

Sōsaku-hanga was a major early 20th-century Japanese print movement that embraced modern artistic values like individual self expression over more traditional aspects of ukiyo-e. "Sosaku Hanga artists advocated for one single artist designing, creating, and printing the piece with no outside assistance. In this way, the artist becomes the sole creator of art, and therefore each step in the process became a form of artistic expression" (Hayes). Onchi, the author of this manual, was a traditionally trained artist who soon developed a reputation for rebelliousness; he became one of the leading voices in the Sōsaku-hanga movement advocating for artists to break boundaries in the form and reach new levels of expression.
The guide explains what a woodblock print is, how it is made, various methods of execution (including printing in multiple colors), and necessary materials. Onchi includes examples of his fellow Sōsaku-hanga artists throughout. An evangelical document of the movement, providing the means for everyday artists to learn a famously self-directed genre.

Read more: Hayes, "Japan's Onchi Koshiro, Sōsaku Hanga, and the Post-WWII West."

The Object

[Tokyo]: Chuo-bijutsu-sha, [circa late 1920s]. 8.75'' x 6''. Original color pictorial wrappers. Illustrated throughout, primarily in black and white, a few plates in color. 100 pages. Closed tear and attendant tape repairs to corner of final leaf. Wrappers with toning and soil, moderate wear; faint erased kanji to front wrapper. Some toning and foxing to leaves.

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