DOI issue:
No. 183 (February 1925)
DOI article:Binyon, Laurence: A note on Hokusai's prints
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21402#0070
A NOTE ON HOKUSAFS PRINTS
of Hokusai's power and stature as an
artist, a a a 0 0 a
Even more than with most of the
Japanese print-designers, Hokusai's style
undergoes remarkable changes. We see
first in this exhibition a few prints signed
" Shunro," the name used by the artist
while in the studio of Shunsho, the great
master of the actor-print who died in 1792.
Here Hokusai works entirely in the fashion
of the day ; there is nothing to show that
this was to be the greatest artist of his
generation. But during the 1790's, es-
pecially towards 1800, he designs an
immense number of surimono, the small
prints with New Year poems on them, to
which a special care and special refinements
of printing were devoted. And here
Hokusai shows a real originality; though
the delicate little designs of figure and
landscape combined, with their shy colour,
are totally unlike the colour-prints for
which he was ultimately to be famous, they
are not like anything which had gone before.
Some of these surimono were of a large size
—long, oblong prints—a kind of shape that
64
ILLUSTRATION FROM " HOKU-
SAI GWASHIKI." COLOUR
WOODCUT BY HOKUSAI
Hokusai was fond of. Consider one of
these (No. 24). We are on the edge of a
cliff above the sea on a spring morning.
Rising from a hollow one sees the blossom-
ing tops of cherry-trees. Far away over
the still water hangs the cone of Fuji. And
at the cliff's edge, looking out to the
" peerless mountain," a party of travellers,
men and women, pause. Outlined against
the hazy air their attitudes are clearly seen ;
as natural as life, but so subtly disposed
and related to each other that you feel that
it is a marvellous design, but cannot say how
it comes to be so. A great master is
already apparent. But now look at the set
of illustrations to the famous Chushingura
play (founded on the true story of the
Forty-Seven Ronin, familiar to readers of
Mitford's " Tales of Old Japan "). This
set dates from 1798, when Hokusai was
nearly forty. But how immature it seems !
It seems to me that in these theatre-scenes
he is hampered by the prevailing archaistic
traditions of the type of print called Uki-ye,
and had not yet moulded these to his own
USe. 0 0 0 0 0 0
of Hokusai's power and stature as an
artist, a a a 0 0 a
Even more than with most of the
Japanese print-designers, Hokusai's style
undergoes remarkable changes. We see
first in this exhibition a few prints signed
" Shunro," the name used by the artist
while in the studio of Shunsho, the great
master of the actor-print who died in 1792.
Here Hokusai works entirely in the fashion
of the day ; there is nothing to show that
this was to be the greatest artist of his
generation. But during the 1790's, es-
pecially towards 1800, he designs an
immense number of surimono, the small
prints with New Year poems on them, to
which a special care and special refinements
of printing were devoted. And here
Hokusai shows a real originality; though
the delicate little designs of figure and
landscape combined, with their shy colour,
are totally unlike the colour-prints for
which he was ultimately to be famous, they
are not like anything which had gone before.
Some of these surimono were of a large size
—long, oblong prints—a kind of shape that
64
ILLUSTRATION FROM " HOKU-
SAI GWASHIKI." COLOUR
WOODCUT BY HOKUSAI
Hokusai was fond of. Consider one of
these (No. 24). We are on the edge of a
cliff above the sea on a spring morning.
Rising from a hollow one sees the blossom-
ing tops of cherry-trees. Far away over
the still water hangs the cone of Fuji. And
at the cliff's edge, looking out to the
" peerless mountain," a party of travellers,
men and women, pause. Outlined against
the hazy air their attitudes are clearly seen ;
as natural as life, but so subtly disposed
and related to each other that you feel that
it is a marvellous design, but cannot say how
it comes to be so. A great master is
already apparent. But now look at the set
of illustrations to the famous Chushingura
play (founded on the true story of the
Forty-Seven Ronin, familiar to readers of
Mitford's " Tales of Old Japan "). This
set dates from 1798, when Hokusai was
nearly forty. But how immature it seems !
It seems to me that in these theatre-scenes
he is hampered by the prevailing archaistic
traditions of the type of print called Uki-ye,
and had not yet moulded these to his own
USe. 0 0 0 0 0 0