| Description |
By the turn of the twentieth century, the vitality of the traditional woodblock print industry in Japan had dissipated. Out of this dormant state of the graphic arts, two woodblock printmaking movements emerged in early twentieth- century Japan: (a) shin-hanga (new prints) and (b) sosaku-hanga (creative prints). These two movements reflected the development of apanese individualism since the Meiji Restoration in 1868. An accessible demonstration of such individualism can be seen in the work and writings of the sosaku-hanga artist Onchi Koshiro (1891-1955). In the Japanese context, individualism seems to refer to a building upon and adaptation of both tradition and adopted ideas. Thus, particular attention must be given to the circumstances and nature of the development of individualistic philosophies in Japan. They reflect not only the aesthetic traditions and culture of the country but also the influence of the West and the ideas inherent in Modernism that shaped the world at the time. Onchi's artistic output reflects not only these circumstances but also an attitude towards creativity and individual expression particular to the sosaku-hanga movement. A literature review of scholarship is provided with regards to woodblock prints produced since 1868 and an overview of woodblock prints in Japan from the eighth to the twentieth centuries, with particular emphasis given to developments in the modern period (after 1868). I also examined the effects of social change and emergent Japanese individualism on the work of philosophers, writers, and woodblock print artists. I proposed several ways in which the work of Onchi Koshiro exhibits individualism unique to early twentieth-century Japan by manifesting (a) an expression of the heart-a deeply felt Japanese notion, (b) direct communication with the viewer, (c) a break with the artist's family, (d) a melancholy representative of post-World War II Japan, and (e) the idea of transient beauty. |
