拍品專文
Eighteen issues of Shin hanga (New prints) were published between June 1932 and December 1935. With the ninth issue, June 1933, the magazine became a quarterly, Kikan shin hanga. The Shin hanga shudan (New print group), the association of artists that started the magazine, was a direct outgrowth of an immediately preceeding and proletarian art movement that had been curtailed by the government. Shin hanga promoted egalitarian and accessible art. Organized by Ono Tadashige and Fujimaki Yoshio along with Muto Rokuro (b. 1907), Shiba Hideo (1907-1979) and Mizufune Rokushu (1912-1980) the magazine provided a forum for professional and amateur artists to publish their prints inexpensively. Most of the prints were carved and printed by the artists themselves.
Ono Tadashige, the best-known of the group, was greatly influenced by fellow artist, Fujimaki Yoshio. Although the same age, Ono considered Fujimaki his teacher. Fujimaki had given up a poorly-paid job as a designer and walked away from familial obligations, a decision that may have contributed to his eventual suicide. He devoted himself to printmaking and, although he produced numerous prints, he lived and died in poverty along the banks of the Sumida River.
The Shin hanga shudan printed broadsides extolling the virtues of their magazine, held group exhibitions, and even had unrealized plans for movable street-corner exhibitions. Within an admittedly limited, and therefore paradoxically elite circle, their hand-crafted prints depicting city and country life had significant exposure. A number of issues were dedicated to their group exhibitions or devoted to special themes, such as 'National Parks' (No. 6), 'Theater and Film' (No. 7), 'New Year's cards' (No. 15), and 'Scenes of Tokyo' (No. 16), and several include articles by contributing artists.
The untitled cover print of another issue of No. 15 (January 1935) by Ono Tadashige is published in Helen Merritt, Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints, The Early Years (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990), p. 232.
Ono Tadashige, the best-known of the group, was greatly influenced by fellow artist, Fujimaki Yoshio. Although the same age, Ono considered Fujimaki his teacher. Fujimaki had given up a poorly-paid job as a designer and walked away from familial obligations, a decision that may have contributed to his eventual suicide. He devoted himself to printmaking and, although he produced numerous prints, he lived and died in poverty along the banks of the Sumida River.
The Shin hanga shudan printed broadsides extolling the virtues of their magazine, held group exhibitions, and even had unrealized plans for movable street-corner exhibitions. Within an admittedly limited, and therefore paradoxically elite circle, their hand-crafted prints depicting city and country life had significant exposure. A number of issues were dedicated to their group exhibitions or devoted to special themes, such as 'National Parks' (No. 6), 'Theater and Film' (No. 7), 'New Year's cards' (No. 15), and 'Scenes of Tokyo' (No. 16), and several include articles by contributing artists.
The untitled cover print of another issue of No. 15 (January 1935) by Ono Tadashige is published in Helen Merritt, Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints, The Early Years (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990), p. 232.