“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.
New look
Our new website is up and running
Cats in Leiden
We might be closed, but our prints can be found at Japan Museum SieboldHuis
We’re currently closed
Due to the coronavirus we have cancelled our May exhibition
Digital Nihon no hanga
Follow us for 100 days of Koizumi Kishio prints
![After one hundred urban landscapes, we feel some bijin (beauties) are long overdue. Last week’s poll showed an equal amount of votes for shin hanga (new prints) and sōsaku hanga (creative prints), so we will show both alternatively! But did you know these labels are actually problematic? Within 20th century Japanese prints we often label works either as shin hanga or sōsaku hanga. This rough divide helps to categorise prints either because of their style (with shin hanga distinguished by the 'fine lines' and sōsaku hanga by the 'broad strokes') or methodology (shin hanga being traditional in genre and commercially produced and sōsaku hanga as independently creative and non-commercial). However useful these labels are, they can be restrictive due to their limited definitions and are therefore far from all-inclusive! For example, Tobari Kogan’s print adheres to sōsaku hanga aesthetics, but was produced by hired block-cutters and marketed through his own association, that functioned as a commercial distribution club (hanpukai).
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Tobari Kogan 戸張弧雁 (1882-1927)
Make-up (before a tansu) (Keshō [tansu no mae] 化粧[たんすの前])
Date: 1913
Artist’s seal: Kogan
Publisher: Self-published (Kogan Shin Azuma Nishiki-e kai 孤雁新東錦絵会)
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