A Testimonial to Watanabe Shōzaburō by Art Historian Jiro Harada

THE STUDIO: A Magazine of Fine and Applied Art

Volume 91, Number 397 April 15th 1926

Notes on Modern Wood-Block Printing in Japan by Jiro Harada

The art of wood-block printing has been revived in Nippon of recent years. Among those who have taken a leading part in this revival the name of Watanabe Shozaburo, of Tokyo, stands supreme. For twenty years he has been studying this art, and while appreciating the merits of the old prints, of which he has an unrivaled knowledge, he has yet discovered their imperfections and devoted  much research to the problem of improving on their technique. He considers that from the latter part of the Tokugawa regime, over a period of more than sixty years, the art gradually degenerated. His efforts have been directed towards producing prints that should be worthy, as prints, of the artistic inspiration of to-day, and he has collected about him the most promising carvers and printers and educated them to a high technical ideal which regards their several branches of the art not as repositories of a hard and fast tradition, but as living arts capable of advance and development in technique. And he has secured the co-operation of a number of good artists who share his own view that a print is a work of art with a genre of its own, and is not a mere reproduction of a painting. Much experimental research has also been expended by him on materials - on the most suitable pigments and papers. Where the wood-block printers of the past failed, in his opinion, was in leaving the production of the print to the carvers and printers once the artist had supplied the design. Mr. Watanabe's method is to get the artist to superintend and direct the actual carving and printing, and they frequently sit beside the craftsman and inspire his technique, expressing through it their own ideal in somewhat the same manner in which a great conductor is able to express himself through the medium of a highly responsive and technically skilled orchestra. Great emphasis is laid on the fact that the result aimed at is a work of art designed to be carried out in the particular medium employed, and that the artist does not conceive it in terms of painting but of wood-block printing.

Mr. Watanabe's long experience as a connoisseur of old prints enables him to help the artist to obtain the effect he aims at, and to save him from the mistakes of the earlier wood-block print designers. He works with his artists and craftsmen, striving always to produce a harmonious whole in which the artist, the carver and the printer work as a team; but as a team in which the artist is the predominant partner from start to finish, the others subordinating their individuality to his. Many of the Western artists who have studied wood-block printing worked with him thus. One result of his practical study of the prints of the past is that he sets his face resolutely against taking too many finished impressions from one set of blocks - a mistake into which the wood-block artists of later Tokogawa times too often fell.

In order to enable the artist fully to express his design Mr. Watanabe has had to make many blocks, and to try many methods of printing, some of which are quite original efforts in the printer's art.... For blocks he uses the wood of the yamazakura the wild cherry tree, having come to the conclusion, after trying many woods, that this one, used by the old printers, is the best for the purpose. His paper - hōsho - is specifically made from the stout inner bark -  mitsumata - obtained from the province of Echizen - and does not contain any of the wood pulp to be found even in most Japanese papers which prevents obtaining of the best results in fine printing. He uses vegetable colours and is always seeking after desired pigments with lasting qualities. For his blocks some five boards are needed, the boards being carved on both sides. From a single block it is often necessary to take a number of impressions of different colours in order to get different qualities and tones in colour. So that his prints usually require to be printed at least twenty times, and more often from thirty to forty times.

Mr. Watanabe's co-operators are such artists as Kawase Hasui, Ito Shinsui and Oda Kadzuma. The last-named produces in his prints an effect not unlike that of the lithographers of the West in certain examples of his work. Takahashi Shotei, who combines in himself the rare talent of a painter who is also a carver and printer, is another of his artists. 

Watanabe Publisher Marks, Seals and Editions

Source: Kawase Hasui and His Contemporaries: The Shin Hanga (New Print) Movement in Landscape Art, Irwin J. Patcher, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, 1986, p. 35-37.

Print Numbering

In 1922, Watanabe decided to number prints by Hasui.  He announced plans for a new series of 36 prints to be entitled Views of Japanese Scenery.  The prints were to be serially numbered, each in an edition of 300.  He advertised that only perfect ones would be chosen, after which the blocks would be destroyed and not reproduced.  In 1923, as the series was being completed, the great Kanto earthquake and fire struck.  The blocks were indeed destroyed, as were all unsold prints, Watanabe’s business establishment, Hasui’s home, sketches and notes, and much of Tokyo and the surrounding area.  Thereafter, Watanabe did not promise that blocks would be destroyed, nor did he number Hasui’s later prints.  Numbered prints were also produced in 1929-30 when Hasui worked briefly with the rival publishing house of Kawaguchi and Sakai.

Most shin hanga prints are not numbered and considerable confusion exists as to the total number produced.  Unfortunately, publishers have provided us with scant information on this subject.  Often quoted by print dealers are the Toledo Museum catalogs of 1930 and 1936 where edition sizes were specified.  These usually range from 100 to 300 impressions for prints by Hasui.

Hasui’s most popular print, Shiba Zojoji Temple in the Snow, was said to have been produced in an edition of 300.  However, by the time of the 1930 Toledo Museum show, some 2000 prints were produced.  Watanabe halted production at 3000 with the last of these being sold after the war.

Typical Margin Information

In the margin of each print are words to describe the scene and a Japanese date.  The date refers to the first successful publication by the studio.  Unlike the publisher’s seals, which we shall discuss next, these margin words and dates are an integral part of each print. 

Watanabe Publishing Seals

Prior to 1924 Watanabe stamped his prints with a small circular seal which spelled his name.  Starting some time in that year, it became necessary to claim copyright ownership and a series of cartouches was employed which stated “copyright owned by Watanabe Shozaburo,” sometimes adding “no copying without permission.”  Since the publisher’s mark was added at a later time, it was occasionally omitted unintentionally.  It is not unusual to find a print without any mark at all.  When the seals were worn, new ones were carved of the same design or of a different design.  The period of use of each of the designs thus overlapped.  The below chart gives the approximate dates of use for these seals.  After the war, copyright stamps were no longer necessary and the small circular seal was used once again.

Watanabe prints are further complicated by the use of a square seal mark of design H (see below chart.)  This mark is not a regular seal and has been used for private publications, gift prints, artist proofs and for “unsuccessful prints".

Finally, one should note the use of the stamp of the printer Ono Gintaro.  During the war the Watanabe family was absent and Ono was left in charge of the studio.  Prints issued during those years bear his name. 

Up to this time, print dealers and auction houses have made little distinction between Watanabe prints bearing earlier and later publisher’s marks.  The tendency has been to treat all prints bearing publisher’s cartouches as “originals” and all (except, of course, those from before the earthquake) bearing the small circular seal as “restrikes.”

New prints published for the first time after the war all bore the circle seal of design A (see below chart) and were true originals.  Also, the same master printers and artists worked together following the war to produce additional impressions of prints of earlier years.  These were often equal and sometimes even superior in quality to those produced in the twenties and thirties even though they were stamped with the circle seal of design A. 

In the last two decades or so, with the passing of the old artists and artisans, print quality has declined substantially.  Hasui prints are still being produced today, but almost all are inferior to those made while the artist was alive.  Recent prints can generally be distinguished from the older post-war prints not only through the quality of printing and the type of paper used, but also because the Watanabe publishing house is using a larger (7 mm) circular seal today of design I (see below chart) rather than the smaller one used right after the war of design A (6 mm). 

My Note: The "Heisei" rectangular seal is now being applied by Watanabe to all newly issued reprints.  It should also be noted that the new prints still use the original woodblocks and many collectors consider the quality of the printing to be excellent, although the newly issued prints are far less desirable to collectors then prints issued during the artist's lifetime.

A Note on English Signatures

Hasui prints and those of other Watanabe artists are stamped in ink with the artist’s name followed by his seal in red.  Occasionally one finds prints signed in pencil in Western script.  These signatures are not those of the artists but were added by Watanabe sales employees.