Departments
Intermediate Japanese - Free Online Course
HANGA
版画
woodblock print
The hanga is one of the best-known art forms of old Japan. The first hanga were produced in 764, when the Empress Koken ordered the production of woodblock prints bearing Buddhist sutras. She intended to distribute these to all the temples throughout her domains.
The hanga reached their peak as an art form during the Edo period. However, most practitioners of hanga were probably unaware that their work would be so highly valued in later years. Hanga were regarded as junk art in their day. Woodblock prints were produced as promotional materials for theaters, restaurants, and even brothels.
Many of the hanga dealt with erotic themes. This subset of the art form was called shunga / 春画 (“spring pictures”). One of the most prolific practitioners of “spring art” was Moronobu (1618-94). He produced several dozen sets of these pictures. Closely related to the shunga was the ukiyo-e / 浮世絵 (“pictures of the floating world”). These detailed the lives of the courtesans and geishas who inhabited Japan’s many pleasure districts.
Some hanga artists were inspired by nature. Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815) was the first to paint landscapes on hanga. One of his contemporaries, Hokusai, produced numerous prints of Mt. Fuji from various perspectives. Many of these prints have been reproduced or imitated in the West.
Many years would pass before the Japanese people appreciated the artistic value of the hanga. Huge numbers of the pictures were sold to foreign collectors during the Meiji Era (1868 - 1912), when the Japan was obsessed with modernization, and generally disdainful of the culture of the Edo period.