Welcome to Nihon no hanga

“The wood-block print shows the artist’s true value: his skill as well as his shortcomings, his successes as well as his failures in the work. ”

Yoshida Hiroshi, 1939

Located in a 17th century canal house with Amsterdam School elements, Nihon no hanga is a private museum dedicated to showcase exhibitions created around a collection of 20th century Japanese prints, collected over 30 years by Elise Wessels. During our opening months in May and November, visitors are invited to join guided tours and other events in our stunning museum.

Nihon no hanga collaborates with specialists and museums around the world and our exhibitions have been received favorably by international audiences. The museum strives to further the understanding of modern and contemporary Japanese woodblock prints.

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Ono Tadashige (1909-1990) Rooftops in Amsterdam, 1933

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Our latest publication 'Memories of Shōwa: Impres

Happy #internationaldanceday ! In the 1920-30s in

Happy #internationaldanceday ! In the 1920-30s in Japan, the dancehall girl was a profession that was a common sight in art, literature and popular sociology. This print is in our upcoming exhibition and catalogue: 'Memories of Shōwa: Impressions of Working Life by Wada Sanzō'.

Originating in the US during the Prohibition Era, and introduced to Japan in the 1920s, dancehalls flourished from the start. Dancehalls provided a space where men could socialise with women. When men bought a ticket, they could dance with the girls, who would pocket roughly 40 percent of the fee. However, the Home Ministry suppressed dancehalls due to their association with non-Japanese culture, and by 1940 they were all shut down to mobilise the country for total war. As Wada himself writes, c. 1941:

“Nowadays the dancer is becoming a relic of days gone by. The dancers were at the height of their popularity between the fifth and sixth and about the tenth year of the Shōwa era, when the whole world was at peace and the people and did not remember that there was such a word as ʻwar.ʼ
The dance-hall which was the source of numerous conversations when a suspicion of corruption got abroad is to-day a thing of the past. The dancers who were admired as [flamboyant] entertainers and as a separate class of women have entirely disappeared.”

No. 18. The dancer (その十八　ダンサー)
Japanese vocations of the Shōwa era in pictures -Volume 2 (Shōwa shokugyō ezukushi dai nishū
昭和職業繪盡　第二輯)
Signature: Wada Sanzō (signed by hand)
Artistʼs seal: Wada Sanzō
Date: 1939-1941
Publisher: Nishinomiya Shoin (Shinagawa Kiyoomi)
Block-cutters: Hino Keikichi, Komeda Shintarō and Fujikawa Manjirō
Printer: Mitsumoto Kaichi (head printer)

‘Memories of Shōwa: Impressions of Working Life by Wada Sanzō’, Nihon no hanga (2021), cat. 42.

#nihonnohanga #dancehallgirls #workingwomen #newexhibition #comingsoon #memoriesofshowa #wadasanzo #和田三造 #japanesestyle #japaneseartist #showa #昭和 #retrojapan #nostalgicjapan #hanga #mokuhanga #japaneseart #japanart #japaneseartwork #privatecollection #privatemuseum #ukiyoe #woodblockprint #japaneseprint #printmaking #reliefprinting #japaneseart #日本の版画 #木版画

Coming Soon: Memories of Shōwa! This new exhibi

Ishikawa Toraji 石川寅治 (1875-1964) Reading (

Ishikawa Toraji 石川寅治 (1875-1964)
Reading (Dokusho 讀書)
Ten types of female nudes (Rajo jisshu 裸女十種)
Date: 1934
Signature: Ishikawa
Artist’s seal: Tora
Publisher: Ryokūsō Gashitsu (Ishikawa Toraji)
Block-cutter: Yamagishi Kazue
Printer: Urushibara Eijirō

‘Ten types of female nudes’ is the largest and best-known Japanese print series of nudes from the 20th century. Toraji possibly drew inspiration from the nudes depicted by the painter Félix Vallotton (1865–1925). Vallotton’s prints were exhibited in Japan; reproductions may have circulated in books and magazines. Toraji worked with models, created numerous sketches before selecting his final ten designs. He hand coloured key block impressions to try out different motifs and colours. Urushibara Eijirō printed the series and Toraji self-published it through his own publishing house, Art Studio of Early Summer Rain Pavilion (Ryokūsō Gashitsu). Two blocks from the series were reportedly destroyed by the police in the presence of the block-cutter Yamagishi Kazue because of the erotic nature of the imagery. Printer Matsuzaki Keizaburō received the surviving blocks and produced another edition after Toraji’s death. This explains the existence of two impressions —one printed during Toraji’s life by Urushibara and posthumous prints by Matsuzaki. A first edition is typically identified by a protective sheet bearing the title of the print, and the presence of one cartouche in the lower left margin with the name of Yamagishi Kazue. It has been stated that first edition prints do not bear the title in the margin on the print, however, the set in our holdings is a complete first edition set, printed on watermarked paper and some show the title in the margin.

Text (adapted) from ‘Waves of renewal: modern Japanese prints, 1900 to 1960 Selections from the Nihon no Hanga collection, Amsterdam’, Hotei Publishing (2016), p. 99, cat. 3.

#bijinga #bijin #womeninart #shinhanga #新版画 #ishikawatoraji #readingaddict #nihonnohanga #hanga #mokuhanga #japaneseart #japanart #japaneseartwork #privatecollection #privatemuseum #ukiyoe #museumfromhome #woodblockprint #japaneseprint #printmaking #reliefprinting #japaneseart #美人画 #日本の版画 #木版画

Torii Kotondo 鳥居言人 1900-1967) Make-up (Kes

Torii Kotondo 鳥居言人 1900-1967)
Make-up (Keshō 化粧)
Date: June 1929
Signature: Kotondo ga
Artist’s seal: Kotondo
Publisher: Sakai-Kawaguchi (Sakai Shōkichi and Kawaguchi Jirō)
Block-cutter: Itō
Edition: 79/200

Fun fact: Nihon no hanga’s copy of this iconic print was used for the cover of the popular book ‘The Female Image: 20th century prints of Japanese beauties’, published in 2000.

Although it is unclear how Kotondo came to work with the publisher’s duo Sakai-Kawaguchi, their collaboration started with this print, in summer of 1929. This particular design was intentionally created for export, in a limited edition of 200. In Waves of renewal, we write: “The strong contrast of the subject’s bare shoulder against a deep blue textured background is extremely effective. This example is a first edition with the names of both publisher’s blind-printed in the lower left corner; a label on the back provides the edition number. Kawaguchi alone released a second edition of three hundred, but the printing is less careful and the deep dark blue background assumes a pale metallic tint.”

‘Waves of renewal: modern Japanese prints, 1900 to 1960 Selections from the Nihon no Hanga collection, Amsterdam’, Hotei Publishing (2016), p. 276-277, cat. 238.
‘The Female Image: 20th century Japanese prints of Japanese beauties’, Hotei Publishing (2000), cover & cat.167.

#bijinga #bijin #womeninart #shinhanga #新版画 #toriikotondo #nihonnohanga #hanga #mokuhanga #japaneseart #japanart #japaneseartwork #privatecollection #privatemuseum #ukiyoe #museumfromhome #woodblockprint #japaneseprint #printmaking #reliefprinting #japaneseart #美人画 #日本の版画 #木版画

Torii Kotondo 鳥居言人 1900-1967) A nap (Utata

Torii Kotondo 鳥居言人 1900-1967)
A nap (Utatane うたた寝)
Date: February 1933
Artist signature: Kotondo ga
Artist’s seal: Kotondo
Publisher: Ikeda Tomizō

From November 1931, Ikeda Tomizō, a publisher that rarely produced prints, started releasing prints of beautiful women by Torii Kotondo. In total twelve designs were created, each printed in an edition of only 100. Their cooperation ceased in 1934, though Ikeda did publish an actor series from 1938-40 by Kotondo’s father Torii Kiyotada IV (1875-1941).

#bijinga #bijin #womeninart #shinhanga #新版画 #naptime #comfy #toriikotondo #nihonnohanga #hanga #mokuhanga #japaneseart #japanart #japaneseartwork #privatecollection #privatemuseum #ukiyoe #museumfromhome #woodblockprint #japaneseprint #printmaking #reliefprinting #japaneseart #美人画 #日本の版画 #木版画

Maekawa Senpan 前川千帆 (1888–1960) Woman in

Maekawa Senpan 前川千帆 (1888–1960)
Woman in snow
Date: c. 1950s
Artist’s signature: Maekawa Senpan
Publisher: Self-published

Born in Kyoto as Ishida Shigezaburō, Senpan was the youngest of three sons. Following his father’s death, he took the name Maekawa from his mother’s family. In 1907, he became a student of Asai Chū at the Kansai Art Academy (Kansai Bijutsuin). He moved to Tokyo in 1911 and in the following year he found employment as a cartoonist at Tōkyō pakku (Tokyo puck). Around the same time, Senpan developed an interest in woodblock prints after seeing a work by Minami Kunzō (1883–1950). In 1915, he secured a position at a Kyoto newspaper. Senpan participated in the first exhibition of the Japan Creative Print Association in 1919 and subsequently in shows of the Spring Sun Society (Shun’yōkai) and Teiten.

He became financially independent as a woodblock print artist only from 1953 and principally due to interest from abroad. He was entirely devoted to woodblock prints, writing in Oliver Statler’s seminal work Modern Japanese prints: An art reborn (1956):

Etching? Wood engraving? Painting?—they’re simply not
agreeable to me. To me, the wood-print quality is everything.
Even calligraphy made with a brush is never wholly satisfying:
I like a character only when it has been cut in wood.

Text from ‘Waves of renewal: modern Japanese prints, 1900 to 1960 Selections from the Nihon no Hanga collection, Amsterdam’, Hotei Publishing (2016), p. 191.

#bijinga #bijin #womeninart #sosakuhanga #創作版画 #maekawasenpan #snow #snowbeauty #japaneseumbrella #nihonnohanga #hanga #mokuhanga #japaneseart #japanart #japaneseartwork #privatecollection #privatemuseum #ukiyoe #museumfromhome #woodblockprint #japaneseprint #printmaking #reliefprinting #japaneseart #美人画 #新版画 #日本の版画 #木版画

Nakagawa Isaku 中川伊作 (1899–2000) Grand ma

Nakagawa Isaku 中川伊作 (1899–2000)
Grand massé (Guran masse グランマッセ)
Date: 1933
Artist’s seal (blind-printed): Isaku
Publisher: Self-published

This print oozes modernity: a young woman with bobbed hair wearing a fashionable garment plays the Western game of billiards. She assumes a difficult pose to carry out a massé, a trick shot in billiards that is made by hitting the cue ball in an upright position such that it curves and turns around interfering balls before hitting its target.

Born in Kyoto, Isaku attended the Kyoto City School of Fine Arts and Crafts (Kyōto Shiritsu Bijutsu Kōgei Gakkō). He graduated in 1918 and became one of the first members of the Japan Creative Print Association. In 1921, he graduated from the Kyoto City Specialist School of Painting. In the mid-1920s, he established the Four Men Creative Print Distribution Club (Yonin Sōsaku Hanga Hanpukai) with Tokuriki Tomikichirō, Asada Benji and Asano Takeji.
In 1929 Isaku became interested in Okinawan-style unglazed pottery (nanbanyaki). By 1938, he collected over one hundred items of pottery, which were shown in an exhibition at the Kyoto National Museum. In 1960, he moved to the US, where he taught Japanese painting at the University of California and was a guest lecturer at the Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design in San Francisco. He stayed in America for ten years, during which he held some ten solo exhibitions of his paintings and woodblock prints. In 1964, he was awarded the key to the city of San Francisco. In 1972, he moved to Okinawa to pursue his dream of making pottery; by the 1980s he had his own kiln and produced nanbanyaki. He continued to make prints and exhibited them together with his pottery up until the 1990s.

From ‘Waves of renewal: modern Japanese prints, 1900 to 1960 Selections from the Nihon no Hanga collection, Amsterdam’, Hotei Publishing (2016), p. 273, cat. 334.

#bijinga #bijin #womeninart #sosakuhanga #創作版画 #nakagawaisaku #billiards #trickshot #nihonnohanga #hanga #mokuhanga #japaneseart #japanart #japaneseartwork #privatecollection #privatemuseum #ukiyoe #museumfromhome #woodblockprint #japaneseprint #printmaking #reliefprinting #japaneseart #美人画 #日本の版画 #木版画

Itō Shinsui 伊東深水 (1898–1972) Snowy nigh

Itō Shinsui 伊東深水 (1898–1972)
Snowy night (Yuki no yo 雪の夜)
Series: Twelve forms of new beauties (Shin bijin jūnishi 新美人十二姿)
Date: January 1923
Signature: Shinsui ga
Artist’s seal: Itō
Edition: 12/200
Publisher: Watanabe Shōzaburō

This design is frequently praised as the representative work in the Twelve forms of new beauties set. The steel-blue umbrella emphasises the feel of a snowy wintry night. The shape of the snowflakes is not applied, rather created through the white unprinted areas of the paper.

‘Waves of renewal: modern Japanese prints, 1900 to 1960 Selections from the Nihon no Hanga collection, Amsterdam’, Hotei Publishing (2016), cat. 225.

#nihonnohanga #japaneseumbrella #hanga #mokuhanga #japaneseart #japanart #japaneseartwork #privatecollection #privatemuseum #snowynight #yuki #wintervibes #winterinjapan #shinhanga #ukiyoe #museumfromhome #woodblockprint #japaneseprint #printmaking #reliefprinting #japaneseart #bijin #snowbeauty #winterbeauty #itoshinsui #美人画 #伊東深水 #新版画 #日本の版画 #木版画

Miki Suizan 三木翠山 (1887-1957) Snow at Higas

Miki Suizan 三木翠山 (1887-1957)
Snow at Higashiyama (no. 1) (Higashiyama no yuki (ichi) 東山の雪 (一）)
Series: Newly selected famous views of Kyoto, volume one (Shinsen Kyōto meisho dai isshū 新選京都名所第一集)
Date: 1925
Signature: Suizan
Publisher: Satō Shōtarō

According to the Yearbook of Japanese Art (Nihon Bijutsu nenkan) of 1922,
Miki Suizan lived in Higashiyama, the hills on the east side of Kyoto, where
most of the famous temples are situated. The woman’s rich kimono is decorated with a variety of flowers, such as plum and camelias and her obi shows tri-coloured chrysanthemums, all motifs that are often used all year long. The crane is an emblem of faithfulness, longevity, and good fortune, so it an important icon for New Year and wedding ceremonies.

#nihonnohanga #snow #yuki #japanesecrane #kimonolife #winterkimono #kimonomotif #wintervibes #winterinjapan #KyotoJapan #higashiyama #shinhanga #ukiyoe #museumfromhome #woodblockprint #japaneseprint #printmaking #reliefprinting #japaneseart #mikisuizan #bijin #snowbeauty #winterbeauty #美人画 #三木翠山 #新版画 #日本の版画 #木版画

Asahi Masahide 旭正秀 (1900-1956) Snow (雪) Se

Asahi Masahide 旭正秀 (1900-1956)
Snow (雪)
Series: New edition of modern women's styles (新版今様女風俗)
Date: 1930
Artist’s seal: Asahi
Published: Self-published

Asahi Masahide was born in Kyoto in 1900. He claimed that as a youth he had an interest in prints after seeing the work of Oda Kazuma. He was a member of the Japan Creative Print Association, the Shun’yōkai and a founding member of the Japan Print Association (Nihon Hanga Kyōkai, a reorganisation of the Japan Creative Print Association). He produced his own woodblock prints from the age of nineteen. In 1920, he met Koizumi Kishio; together they established the publishing company Hangasha, which released the magazine Hanga (Prints, November 1921–April 1922). Kishio was the editor for Hanga and Masahide served in the same capacity for the magazine Shi to hanga (Poetry and prints), which ran from September 1922 to August 1925. The magazine introduced prints by Western artists, such as Paul Gauguin and Edvard Munch, and poets such as William Blake and Guillaume Apollinaire. Shi to hanga also featured young woodblock artists, articles on the history of printmaking, short stories, and essays. Masahide contributed designs to the series One hundred views of new Japan, magazines such as Han geijutsu (Print art), and wrote about Japanese prints, printing techniques and the cultural changes in Yokohama. In 1934, he accompanied an exhibition of Japan Print Association artists to Paris. In 1936, he travelled to other European cities and the United States to promote his art and the same year he adopted the name Asahi Yasuhiro.

Biography from ‘Waves of renewal: modern Japanese prints, 1900 to 1960 Selections from the Nihon no Hanga collection, Amsterdam’, Hotei Publishing (2016), p. 274.

#nihonnohanga #museumfromhome #gallery #japanese #privatecollection #privatemuseum #museumlovers #hanga #mokuhanga #ukiyoe #japaneseart #japanart #japaneseartwork #japanesewoodblockprint #japaneseprint #japaneseculture #woodcutprint #woodblockprint #bijin #sosakuhanga #moderngirl #snowbeauty #snowart #創作版画 #美人画 #日本美術 #日本の版画 #木版画 #モダンガール #雪

Itō Shinsui 伊東深水 (1898–1972) Kotatsu (K

Itō Shinsui 伊東深水 (1898–1972)
Kotatsu (Kotatsu 炬燵)
Series: Twelve forms of new beauties (Shin bijin jūnishi 新美人十二姿)
Date: January 1923
Signature: Shinsui ga
Artist’s seal: Itō
Edition: 14/200
Publisher: Watanabe Shōzaburō

This print appeared in January 1923, almost nine months before the Great Kantō Earthquake. Pre-earthquake prints like these only survived the disaster if they had been stored elsewhere, as Watanabe’s print studio and storage was completely destroyed.

‘Waves of renewal: modern Japanese prints, 1900 to 1960 Selections from the Nihon no Hanga collection, Amsterdam’, Hotei Publishing (2016), cat. 224.

#nihonnohanga #museumfromhome #gallery #fineart #japanese #privatecollection #privatemuseum #museumlovers #hanga #mokuhanga #japaneseart #japanart #japaneseartwork #japanesewoodblockprint #japaneseprint #japaneseculture #woodcut #woodcutprint #woodblockprint #bijin #winterbeauty #itoshinsui #kotatsu #美人画 #日本美術 #版画 #日本の版画 #木版画 #コタツ

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