20.02.2025Art & History Museum
guided tour - Plaster Cast Workshop
guided tourRead more
Shin hanga
13.10.22 − 15.01.23
Shin hanga - The new prints of Japan (1900-1960)
The Shin hanga exhibition will feature no less than 220 Japanese prints from two private collections in the Netherlands, as well as sketches, studies and prints from the collection of the grandson of the publisher Watanabe. Next to these works, the visitors will find a selection of Shin hanga prints from the rich collection of the Art & History Museum.
The Shin hanga (literally « new prints ») art movement was a revival of traditional printmaking (ukiyo‑e) in the early 20th century. The publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885-1962), noting the decline in xylographic production due to competition from new imported techniques such as photography and lithography, was the movement's greatest promoter. He gathered around him artists whose drawings were printed using traditional woodblock printing techniques.
While retaining classic themes such as landscapes, beautiful women (bijin), kabuki actors and flowers-and-birds, Shin hanga prints also reflect a modernizing Japan and seduce with a new aesthetic and an extremely high production quality.
Artists: Kawase Hasui, Itō Shinsui, Ohara Koson, Kasamatsu Shirō, Komura Settai, …
This exhibition is a logical follow-up to the major Ukiyo-e exhibition held at the Museum in 2016‑2017. It takes up the history of traditional printmaking in Japan where the 2016 exhibition ended.
For the exhibition, the museum cooperates with guest curator Chris Uhlenbeck.
Slow looking
The exhibition comes with a visitor guide giving more information about the prints on display. In addition, we carefully selected ten prints where we invite you to slow down and look a little longer. Take your time, pause and enjoy.
For families with children aged 8 and over
We offer an active discovery trail: look at the details in the booklet and find the matching prints in the exhibition. Read on to find out more about the Japanese prints and how they were made. Search, look, think, do, and of course: have fun! Ask for your booklet at the reception desk.
Woman Holding a Black Cat
Friedrich (Fritz) Capelari, Woman Holding a Black Cat, 1915 © S. Watanabe Color Print Co.
Woman Combing her Hair
Hashiguchi Goyō, Woman Combing her Hair, March 1920 © Private collection, the Netherlands
Egret in Rain
Ohara Koson (Shōson), Egret in Rain, 1928, © RMAH
Mount Fuji Seen from Lake Shōji
Charles William Bartlett, Mount Fuji Seen from Lake Shōji, 1916 © S. Watanabe Color Print Co.
Crows in Moonlight
Ohara Koson (Shōson), Crows in Moonlight, 1927, © S. Watanabe Color Print Co.
Kataoka Nizaemon XI
Natori Shunsen, Kataoka Nizaemon XI dans le rôle de Honzō à l’acte IX [de la pièce Kanadehon Chūshingura], 1926, © Collection Scholten
Spring Night, Ginza
