Sosaku Hanga

From 1974 for about 10 years, I collected sosaku hanga prints by Yamamoto Ken, Oda Kazuma, Tobari Kogan, Onchi Koshiro, Yanaka Yasunori and others to send to England at the request of a British collector named Mr. H. At the time, I was also running the Gendai Hanga Center where we were publishing and distributing prints by artists like Sekine Nobuo, Sugai Kumi, Onosato Toshinobu, Ay-O, Motonaga Sadamasa, Isozaki Arata, and Andy Warhol. There was a single collector out in the suburbs for whom I collected sosaku hanga from the end of the Meiji to Taisho, to the early Showa period, by artists from famous to totally unknown. The total number of prints I collected (sold) was a shocking 7,000.

Kubo Sadajiro taught that an art dealer (collector) must touch (buy) things (artworks). "Wives and paintings are something whose value you'll discover after living with them for one month" - in other words, a painting cannot be understood through only logic. From that point of view, the 7,000 works that I touched, bought, and sold over 10 years are part of my flesh and blood. I'm proud to say that have touched more prints than anybody else.
 

I have a habit of preferring unknown artists to famous ones, minor artists to major, and artists who have a strong central core. In terms of sosaku hanga, it has to be Tobari Kogan. But Kogan, a sculptor who died young, only produced a dozen or so woodblock prints in his lifetime. There was a time when I had all of Kogan's woodblock prints in my room including "Rain on the Senju Bridge" and "Tamanori" (now in the collection of the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art). One day I'd like to write a proper note about it. Hirakawa Seizou and Suywa Kanenori, Nishida Takeo, and Kon Junzo and some of my favorite artists, but when talking about Sosaku Hanga, Takehisa Yumeji and Onchi Koshiro are absolutely exceptional figures, no matter what anyone says.

In the history of Japanese modern art, what we call "the Sosaku Hanga movement" was the attitude and advocacy of modern printmaking led by Yamamoto Kanae and others based in the magazine "Hosun" at the end of the Meiji period. It was a movement that attempted to put into practice the assertion that "prints should not be reproductinos of pictures". The freshness of the movement in its early days, not only involving professionals but also many amateurs, and the energy of their printmaking that spread throughout the country was breathtaking. "Self drawn, self carved, self printed" was advocated to establish the originality of prints, and the phrase eventually became a slogan, and the words, originally nothing more than a methodology for achieving superior printmaking expression, ended up becoming a self-objective, trivializing the energy of the movement. Unfortunately, only a few artists, such as Onchi Koshiro, were able to escape the impasse that their creation had fallen into. Among the many artists who were bound by the theme of "self drawn, self carved, self printed", and who were so focused on the technique that their work degenerated into mere decorative objects, Takehisa Yumeji and Onchi Koshiro were the only exceptions. Nevertheless, I have regretted the cold attitude taken by researchers toward the nationally popular Takehisa Yumeji until very recently. I wonder if somebody will one day write a full fledged Yumeji Theory. Not only Onchi Koshiro, but Q Ei, the artist I most admire, was also greatly influenced by Yumeji.




"Scenes of Last Tokyo"

1945
Woodblock print (Set of 15 prints)
Publisher: Fugaku Publishing

Artists:
ONCHI Koshiro, HIRATSUKA Unichi, YAMAGUCHI Gen, KAWAKAMI Sumio, MAEDA Masao, SAITO Kiyoshi, SEKINO Jyunichiro, AZECHI Umetaro, MAEKAWA Senpan

"Japan Print Association 1943 Calendar"

1943
Woodblock print(12 artists)
Calendar: 25.0×12.7cm
Artists' comments: 25.5×13.5cm

 


Koshiro ONCHI
"Composition No. 2 Character"

1949 (Printed in 1968 by Kouichi HIRAI)
Woodblock
Work size: 34.2x26.7cm
Frame size: 52.5x41.0cm
Stamp signed
Sticker labeled Print: Koichi HIRAI (in Japanese) on the back
*Raisonne No. 314
(Keisho-sha)
SOLD

Koshiro ONCHI
"Poème No. 22: A Leaf and Clouds"

1953 (Printed later by Kouichi HIRAI)
Multi block print
Image size: 45.0x35.0cm
Frame size: 63.5x55.5cm
Stamp signed
*Raisonne No. 401
(Keisho-sha)


Koshiro ONCHI
"Poème No. 8 Season of Butterfly"

1948 (Printed later by Kunio ONCHI)
Multiblock, Multicolor
Image size: 36.4x28.7cm
Sheet size: 43.4x31.4cm
Ed.20
Stamped in front
SOLD


Koshiro ONCHI
"Title lost"

1915
Pen on paper
18.1x13.0cm
Certificate by Kunio ONCHI attached
SOLD

Koshiro ONCHI
"Poeme No.15 Past"

1950 (Printed later by Kouichi HIRAI)
Woodblock print
42.1×32.3cm
*Raisonne No.340

Koshiro ONCHI
"Title lost"

Printed later
Woodblock print
8.5×6.7cm
Ed.300
Signed
*Raisonne No.423
SOLD


MAEKAWA Senpan
"Ladies of the field"

Woodblock print
36.0×27.0cm

SOLD

MAEKAWA Senpan
"Ohara peddler"

1946
Woodblock print
24.3x17.0cm
Signed

SOLD

MAEKAWA Senpan
"Tanabata"

1946
Woodblock print
24.3×18.2cm
Signed

SOLD


MAEKAWA Senpan
"Tsurumikagetsu Park"

Woodblock print
19.0×28.2cm
Stamp signed

SOLD


MAEKAWA Senpan
"Plum grove"

1928
Woodblock print
19.2×28.5cm
Stamp signed
SOLD

SEKINO Junichi
"At the fireplace in the north east"

1946
Woodblock print
24.0×18.2cm
Signed

SOLD


SEKINO Junichi
"Yukimuro"

Plate
24.2×18.5cm
Signed

SOLD

SEKINO Junichi
"Bookplate"

Copperplate print
12.8×9.3cm
Signed

SOLD

ODA Kazuma
"Maiko"

1941
Lithograph
20.0×14.5cm
Signed
*Raisonne No.280

SOLD


ISHIKAWA Toraji
"10 Nudes   In the bath"

1934
Woodblock print
38.0×30.0cm
Stamp signed on plate
SOLD

ONO Tadashige
"Mountain"

1958
Woodblock print
11.8×22.2cm
Ed.20
Signed

SOLD

ONO Tadashige
"Garden"

1960
Woodblock print
12.5×21.2cm
Ed.30
Signed
SOLD


KAWANISHI Hide
"Port lady"

1946
Woodblock print
24.2×18.2cm
Signed

SOLD

SHIMOSAWAKI Hachiro
"Okunikko"

1933
Woodblock print
36.5×47.4cm
Stamp signed
Poem written in pencil


NAGASE Yoshiro
"Flowers"

1928
Woodblock print
25.8×20.0cm
Signed

SOLD


NAGASE Yoshiro
"Small rural scene"

Woodblock print
19.0×28.2cm
Stamp signed

SOLD

SASAJIMA Kihiria
"Bridge in a valley"

1938-39
Woodblock print
36.5×45.0cm
Pencil and stamp signed

TAKEHISA Yumeji
"Makeup Autumn" (From the October issue of Fujin Graph)

1924
Woodblock print
17.4×19.0cm

SOLD


TAKEHISA Yumeji
"Snow Wind" (From the December issue of Fujin Graph)

1924
Woodblock print
16.0×20.9cm
SOLD

ISHII Tsuruzo
"Mountains"

Woodblock print
19.0×28.2cm
Stamp signed
SOLD

HIRATSUKA Unichi
"Swallow in a plum tree"

Wood engraving
6.3×9.4cm
Signed


ASAHI Masahide
"Leaning tower of Pisa" (Italy)

1933
Woodblock print
22.5×16.0cm
Ed.100
Embossed

ASAHI Masahide
"Pyramids of eternal summer"(Egypt)

1933
Woodblock print
22.9×16.0cm
Ed.100
Embossed

ASAHI Masahide
"Chagall's autumn"(Berlin)

1933
Woodblock print
22.5×16.0cm
Ed.100
Embossed

SOLD

Tobari Kogan "Sosaku Hanga and How to Make Prints"
1922
Hangasha
21.5x13.5cm
SOLD

Included prints Woodblock print"Balancing on a a ball" 1 print
5 others broken down by edition
Condition Some yellowing of the pages, stains, damage to the joint, some handwriting inside the book


Exhibitions
2021
Spring Mini Collection / Yoshida Hiroshi and Taisho Hanga (By appointment only) 3/10~3/19


2016
Koshiro ONCHI Exhibition 2/6~2/20

2013
Koshiro ONCHI Exhibition 6/25~7/6

2011
KLEE & KANDINSKY & Koshiro ONCHI  7/26~7/30

2008
Heinrich Vogeler and the artists of "Jugendstil" 4/4~4/19

2007
Koshiro ONCHI and The Printmakers of "Sosaku Hanga" 12/14~12/29

2003
Koshiro ONCHI Exhibition 1/10~1/25

1996
2nd Artists of Sosaku Hanga Exhibition 6/12~6/29

1995
1st Artists of Sosaku Hanga Exhibition 12/8~12/17日