Shin Hanga: The New Print Movement of Japan (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Pomegranate's products never cease to delight. Here we have a book abount prints in the Japanese style of 'Shin Hanga', which translates to 'new prints'. The Shim Hanga movement started in the early twentieth century, but interestingly, it was an effort by its adherents to revive an older style of woodblock called 'ukiyo-e' and merge it with more contemporary methods and imagery. The muted colors of the Japanese art are shown here in all of their glory. They convey a sense of delicacy, and attention to detail by not letting the medium overwhelm the imagery. If you're an art history lover, or merely a fan of Japanese art, you will undoubtedly love this book. Its not only beautiful, but the publisher wisely kept the physical size in reasonable proportion so that you can comfortably study both the pictures and the eminently readable and instructive text. -- Rainbo Electronic Reviews, May 2007

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Pomegranate Communications; Reprint edition (March 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764940392
• ISBN-13: 978-0764940392
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #295,335 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Profusely and beautifully illustrated with more than one hundred color images, May 11, 2007

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

The Japanese term 'shin hanga' means 'new prints'. "Shin Hanga: The New Print Movement Of Japan" by curator Barry Till is a impressively illustrated and informative history of the 'new prints' art movement beginning with the Meiji period (1868-1912), continuing through the prewar years of the 1930s, and going on to the artists of the 1960s. Profusely and beautifully illustrated with more than one hundred color images, "Shin Hanga" is very strongly recommended for academic and community library Art History reference collections, and will prove to be of immense interest for art students, artists, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in Japanese culture, art and history.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Up-dating Ukiyoe, May 12, 2007

By	C. S. Rathore - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Small introductory book that will update your knowledge of what happened to ukiyoe and how Japanese woodblock prints morphed into Shin Hanga or new prints in the twentieth century. The woodblock print which was once a group effort became only the artist's creation. It's about the transition and expansion of subjects from the "Floating world" of the entertainment quarters in Kyoto and Tokyo to everyday life in modernized Japan. The Japanese love the sights and sounds of their country and are tourists par excellance from school to old age. It's no surprise that the landscapes of Hiroshige and Hokusai of famous sites translate easily to modern day views of the same famous Japanese places in the prints of Hasui,Yoshida and Kasamatsu. Mannered actor prints become more real and the Bijin prints of geisha change from the artificial to beauty in the natural female form in everyday life.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.", June 9, 2008

By	Crazy Fox (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Ukiyo-e, those ubiquitously plebian woodblock prints of courtesans and landscapes from old Edo, are readily recognizable in Japan and (perhaps more so) abroad as archetypal cultural artifacts of Japan, but what became of them in the modern era? Did they just die out? Well, yes and no. The tradition indeed withered in the late 1800's in the atmosphere of Meiji Westernization, but their lingering influence and popularity with foreigners inspired something of a 20th-century renaissance of sorts--or "reboot" we might say nowadays--in the form of Shin Hanga ("New Prints"), the subject of this fine, beautifully printed book.

Barry Till's introduction makes for a fantastic overview of this artistic genre, outlining in informative, straightforward prose its origins around 1915 with the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo, the various careers of Shin Hanga artists especially during its heyday (1915-1937) but also following up on its slow fade as late as the 1960's and its impact on European and American artists. Till describes the distinguishing characteristics of these "New Prints" with astute clarity, especially the dynamics of its distinct neo-traditional blend of Japanese sensibilities and Western artistic techniques. Key subdivisions of subject matter are also discussed, those being ones somewhat familiar from Ukiyo-e but with a different priority of prevalence and emphasis: landscapes, beautiful women, actor portraits, and "bird & flower" nature studies.

The bulk of the book is devoted to the actual prints, of course, and features 102 illustrations in vibrant full color; most are full page (as it should be), while some are reproduced a bit smaller and are printed two to a page (still adequate) and in two rare cases a horizontally-extended print takes up two full pages. A vast majority of the prints are by the acknowledged masters of the genre, mainly Yoshida Hiroshi and Kawase Hasui, but also Takahashi Hiroaki, Yoshida Toshi, Tsuchiya Koitsu, Ito Shinsui, and Natori Shunsen. Many more minor artists are represented with a single work or two, including obscure artists about whom little is known. The prints themselves are invariably a joy to behold. Many are indisputably works of fine art with a refined and resonant beauty and subtlety, and while a few others veer dangerously close to a touristy postcard aesthetic without quite lapsing completely, these too have a certain visual charm. In terms of printmaking proficiency and craftsmanship, all are of the highest caliber.

A fine entryway into an important though sometimes overlooked modern Japanese artistic genre, this book will naturally appeal to anyone interested in Japanese art and culture (especially those with a strong nostalgic Romantic streak, like me) as well as those with a more general interest in the art of printmaking as a whole. It takes about an evening to browse through, but in that span of time opens up whole realms of beauty both humble and sublime.

P.S. for books focused on the key Shin Hanga artists, see Visions of Japan: Kawase Hasui's Masterpieces and The Complete Woodblock Prints of Yoshida Hiroshi. For a look at Sosaku Hanga, a different modern Japanese print movement somewhat opposed to Shin Hanga, see Made in Japan: The Postwar Creative Print Movement.