Munakata Shiko (1903-1975)

HANKEI [STRENGTH OF THE BOARD]

Details

Munakata Shiko (1903-1975)
Hankei [Strength of the Board]
One volume, contains a print in brown on purple paper as endpapers, monochrome print as frontispiece, two original woodblock prints bound-in, eight small offset lithographs of the artist's prints tipped on to hand-made grey paper, nineteen monochrome and hand-coloured woodblock prints bound-in, fourteen essays and three poems in letterpress by Munakata on various artistic topics, including his own works, hand-painted cover, published by Kawade Shobo, 1944, inscribed, signed and sealed
26.2 x 18.3cm.

Lot Essay

Hankei was published as a limited edition of 2,500 copies and as in this example, some of them were bound with a white cover to be decorated by Munakata as a special-bound edition (as in this lot). For other special-bound examples, see Kodansha, Munakata Shiko Zenshu vol.1 (Tokyo, 1977), pl. 729 - 736.

The title is based on Munakata's essential idea that the 'board', or woodblock [han] is full of energy [kei] to be released by the carver. According to the postscript of the book, although it was published in midst of a difficult time for Japan during World War II, the monochrome prints had been newly executed for the book with Munakata's desperate pursuit of Hanga no Michi [Road of the Woodcut].

For a similar example in the British Museum see https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx, registration number 1989,0314,0.56.1-3

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