''One Hundred Views of New Tokyo'' (''新東京百景, Shin Tōkyō Hyakkei'') was a series of

woodblock prints Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is create ...

created from 1928 to 1932 by eight artists of the sōsaku hanga "creative print" movement. The artists were

Un'ichi Hiratsuka , born in Matsue, Shimane, was a Japanese woodblock printmaker. He was one of the prominent leaders of the '' sōsaku hanga'' ("creative print") movement in 20th century Japan. Hiratsuka's father was a shrine carpenter, and his grandfather was ...

Kōshirō Onchi , born in Tokyo, was a Japanese print-maker. He was the father of the '' sōsaku-hanga'' movement in twentieth century Japan, and a photographer. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics. Biogr ...

Sakuichi Fukazawa Sakuichi Fukazawa (4 September 1896 – 12 January 1947) was a Japanese painter and Japanese woodblock printing, woodblock printer working within the ''sosaku-hanga'' "creative prints" movement. Fukazawa was born in Niigata Prefecture and ...

Kawakami Sumio Chosei Kawakami (10 April 1895 – 1 September 1972) was a Japanese painter and print maker. He is better known as Sumio Kawakami (). His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics. Biography ...

Senpan Maekawa was a Japanese woodblock printer associated with the sosaku hanga "creative prints" movement. Early life Born in Kyoto, his given name was Ishida Shigezaburō but from 1905 he went by Maekawa Senpan. He studied at the Kansai Fine Art Academ ...

Fujimori Shizuo was a Japanese woodblock artist associated with the '' sōsaku-hanga'' (creative prints) movement. His style was strongly influenced by Expressionism. Fujimori was born in 1891 in Kurume, Fukuoka prefecture. He studied Western-style art (''yō ...

, Henmi Takashi and

Suwa Kanenori Suwa Kanenori (1897–1932) was a Japanese painter and woodblock print artist associated with the sōsaku hanga ("creative print") movement. Born 1897, he spent his youth in Kobe, and started printing from the age of sixteen. In 1914 he moved to ...

Publication

After much of Tokyo was destroyed by fire after the

1923 Great Kantō earthquake The struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshū at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes. Extensive firestorms an ...

, a new wave of sōsaku-hanga artists banded together and looked to document the changing face of the city, much as

Hiroshige Utagawa Hiroshige (, also ; ja, 歌川広重 ), born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format l ...

's series ''

One Hundred Famous Views of Edo ''One Hundred Famous Views of Edo'' (in ja, 名所江戸百景, Meisho Edo Hyakkei) is a series of 119 ukiyo-e prints begun and largely completed by the Japanese artist Hiroshige (1797–1858). The prints were first published in serialized form i ...

'' had 75 years earlier. The artists called themselves the ''Takujōsha'' ("Table Group") and the prints were published by the group via Nakajima Jutaro of the Nihon Sosaku Hanga Club.Merritt, pp. 276-8 Each artist contributed 12 or 13 prints. The series was issued on a subscription basis in an edition of only 50 sets. In the February 1932 ''Bulletin of the Hanga Club'', Senpan Maekawa wrote: Only a few complete sets have been preserved, and they are now in institutional or private collections.

Subject matter and techniques

Typical of the sōsaku hanga movement, there was much experimentation with colours and types of paper. The themes and subjects vary; some prints hark back to a bygone era such as Hiratuska's ''Shinobazu Pond in Snow'' and Fukazawa's ''Shiba Zozoji Temple'' which is reminiscent of Hiroshige's work at the same location. The artists' followed their

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surfac ...

predecessors by depicting landscapes and the common people at leisure. In homage to Hiroshige's '' Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō'', which started at the same location, Hiratsuka made the first print

Nihonbashi is a business district of Chūō, Tokyo, Japan which grew up around the bridge of the same name which has linked two sides of the Nihonbashi River at this site since the 17th century. The first wooden bridge was completed in 1603. The current ...

, the central point of the city from which all distances were measured. As was common in ukiyo-e prints from the past, bridges feature in many of the prints. Despite the inclusion of some traditional views, the group were less concerned with the concept of ''meishō'' (famous places) and beautiful scenes, but rather they sought to document the

Shōwa era The was the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Shōwa ( Hirohito) from December 25, 1926, until his death on January 7, 1989. It was preceded by the Taishō era. The pre-1945 and post-war Shōwa periods are almos ...

lifestyle and depict the rapidly modernizing city.Nihon no hanga Sempan chose to depict miniature golf and a factory district, Onchi a coffee shop and cinema interior. Fukazawa shows a baseball game, while his print of a Shell gasoline station foreshadows the work of Pop art.Austin

Gallery

Maekawa subway.jpg, ''Subway'',

Tokyo Station (titel op object) Herinneringen aan Tokyo (serietitel) Tokyo kaiko zue (serietitel), RP-P-2004-84-4.jpg, ''Tokyo Station'',

(later impression) Tokyo bei Regen.jpg, ''Rain in Yotsuya Mistuke'', Henmi Takashi Fujimori Rotes Tor.jpg, ''Red Gate in Early Summer'',

Fukazawa Brücke.jpg, ''Senju-ōhashi bridge'',

Voetgangers in Ginza Night of Ginza (titel op object) Herinneringen aan Tokyo (serietitel) Tokyo kaiko zue (serietitel), RP-P-2004-84-12.jpg, ''Ginza'',

Sumio Kawakami Chosei Kawakami (10 April 1895 – 1 September 1972) was a Japanese painter and print maker. He is better known as Sumio Kawakami (). His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics. Biography ...

(later impression) Sukiya brug (titel op object) Sukiyabashi (titel op object) Herinneringen aan Tokyo (serietitel) Tokyo kaiko zue (serietitel), RP-P-2004-84-11.jpg, ''Sukiya Bridge'',

(later impression) Suwa Kanenori, 1930.jpg, ''Ginza'',

Other artists on the same theme

Other Japanese artists of the Sōsaku Hanga school of this Showa Era produced works on the same theme. In particular, Koizumi Kishio is famous for his series titled "One Hundred Views of Great Tokyo in the Showa Era" ((昭和東京百図絵, Shōwa Tōkyō hyaku zue") which was completed between 1928 and 1940.Koizumi Kishio , The Art Institute of Chicago (artic.edu)

Notes

References

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External links

{{commonscat-inline, One Hundred Views of New Tokyo (woodcut series)
All 100 images from the series
MIT Visualising Cultures, images courtesy Carnegie Museum of Art Ukiyo-e print series