| |
 Sketch-tour books and prints of the early twentieth century [continued]
Scott Johnson
There are 150 illustrations on a variety of papers. Only five of these are
color woodcuts, hand-printed by the Imai Insatsu-jo. The blocks were cut by
Igami Bonkotsu. Bonkotsu's work was considerably more extensive, however.
Shûeisha is listed in the colophon as kappan printer, a term normally
used for typeset printing. There is no typeset text in the book, however, and
the term is usedhere to mean machine-printing of woodcuts. There are 120
single-color woodcuts; by varying colors (black, blue, brown, green) and papers,
and by overprinting some illustrations with red seal-stamps of the established
way-stations on Mt. Fuji, great variety of effect is achieved by simple means.
Of even more interest, twenty of the machine-printed woodcuts are in more than
one color, including four 4-color prints. Shading effects were not yet possible,
but Bonkotsu's skilful block cutting allowed for many subtle effects.
A few of the illustrations are printed with lithographic colors, the method
also used for printing the way-station seals. All this technical variety is
subtly used so that every effect intensifies the initial impression of viewing
an artist's actual sketch-book. Fuji-San Suketchi is the first book in
the sketch-tour genre published by Kanao Tanejirô under his Bun'endô imprint.
Bun'endô pressbooks were already well known for their fine design, but
publications had mainly been literary works. The Bun'endô imprint,however,
ultimately came to be the most consistently innovative and prolific of the
sketch tour genre, first in books and later in prints. One index of the success
of these books is that other artists and publishers were prompted to make
similar ventures. In 1911 four separate works came out: Setonaikai Shasei
Isshû, Jûnin Shasei Ryôkô, Kinai Kembutsu and Bungei Chiri
TôkaidôGojûsantsugi.
Setonaikai Shasei Isshû (Sketches of the Seto Inland Sea) was
published in the same size and format as the Nihon Meishô Shasei Kikô
series. This book includes woodcuts, zincographs, lithographs and halftones by
eight artists of the Pacific Painting Society (Taiheiyô Gakai), a group growing
out of the older Meiji Fine Arts Society. The artists, mostly students of Asai
Chû or Koyama Shôtarô, are: Kosugi Misei (1881-1964), Nakagawa Hachiro (1877-
1922),Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950), Ishikawa Toraji(1875-1964), Watanabe Shinya
(1875-1950), Oshita Tôjirô (1870-1912), Kawai Shinzô (1867-1936) and Mitsutani
Kunishirô (1874-1936). All eight of them were accomplished watercolorists;
Yoshida Hiroshi and Oshita Tôjirô were establishing their reputations on their
watercolors. Tôjirô, in fact, devoted his career to encouraging watercolor art,
especially through his ongoing magazine Mizue.
The table of contents of Setonaikai Shasei Isshû itemises the original
art works and the graphic media used in the book. The artisans who produced the
woodcuts and lithographs are not named. Yoshida Hiroshi is represented by four
woodcuts, two lithographs and several halftones. Admirers of Yoshida's later
prints will find this book revealing. Already in 1911 he was clearly attracted
to sailing vessels, water reflections and atmospheric effects. In fact, this
book may have given Yoshida his first opportunity to see his work in the woodcut
medium, nine years before he produced his first single-sheet prints for the
Watanabe Shôsaburô print studio. Yoshida remains the best-known representative
of the sketch-tour tradition, as he enthusiastically documented his travels
throughout the world in words and woodcuts until his death in 1950.
Publisher Kashima Chôjirô's decision to include zincographs, lithographs and
photolithographs greatly expanded the media available to the artists. The rather
narrow tonal range of the halftones point up the continuing importance of the
still more subtle woodcuts and lithographs.
Most of the illustrations are realistic, but there are some surprises.
Mitsutani Kunishirô, whose major paintings of the time tended to be muted in
color and sombre in effect, shows a different face with a haiga-like
impression of health seekers being packed in hot sand at a spa in Kyûshû. Even
more striking is a gaudy, pointillistic seascape lithograph by Yoshida Hiroshi,
demonstrating a stylistic range he chose not to reveal in his later
self-produced woodcuts. A related book in the same busy year of 1911 is the
Jûnin Shasei Ryokô. The Inland Sea is the theme of this book as well; the
format and printing media are also similar. Again Kashima Chôjirô is the
publisher.
© Boston Book
Co. 2001
|
|