The Women of Shin Hanga: The Judith and Joseph Barker Collection of Japanese Prints

Cover of The Women of Shin Hanga
January, 2013

Edited by Allen Hockley, with contributions by Kendall H. Brown, Allen Hockley, and Nozomi Naoi

Distributed by University Press of New England

2013, 280 pages

paper, ISBN # 978-0-944722-45-9, $40.00

Shin hanga (new prints) were an early-twentieth-century revival of traditional Japanese woodblock prints that had enjoyed tremendous appeal during the previous two centuries. Though inspired by their predecessors, shin hanga artists engaged with issues specific to their own time, especially in their depictions of women, where traditional conceptions of femininity competed with Western fashions and the loose morals of “modern girls.” Tracing the development of this fascinating visual culture, this exhibition catalogue examines the strategies shin hanga artists developed to retain and enhance the essential aesthetic qualities of traditional woodblock prints while negotiating dramatic changes in their social, cultural, and artistic environments.



Publication subject: AsiaModern & Contemporary Art