This course is an exploration of the history of the Japanese woodblock print, highlighting the emergence of the ukiyo-e (floating world) in Edo Period Japan (1615 – 1868) and the Shin Hanga (New Prints) movement of the Taisho period (1912 – 26). To complement what students learn in the classroom, they’ll visit the special exhibition Water and Shadow: Kawase Hasui and Japanese Landscape Prints and see landscape prints, made by master artist Kawase Hasui in an era of significant social and cultural change in Japan.
Image: Kami(no) Bridge, Fukagawa, from the series “Twelve Subjects of Tokyo,” summer 1920, Kawase Hasui, woodblock print, ink and color on paper.