Prints for Akiko Walley's Class

Toyohara Kunichika (1835–1900) trained in the studio of Utagawa Kunisada I and became one of the leading kabuki print designers of the late Edo and early Meiji periods. Through his skillful use of color, expressive line, and psychological intensity, Kunichika excelled at conveying the emotional force of theatrical performance.

This print depicts Bandō Hikosaburō V (1832–1877) in the role of Inugami Hyōbu, from the series Magic in the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac. The character is drawn from the world of Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (Eight Dog Heroes), the epic tale of magically born warrior-sons descended from a princess and a dog. Kunichika heightens the drama through a striking close-up composition, while the printer’s use of bokashi (graduated shading) in the background enhances the mood and theatrical tension of the scene.

Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847–1915) stands apart from most ukiyo-e artists in that he is not clearly associated with a single artistic lineage and is often regarded as largely self-taught. He has been aptly described as “the last important ukiyo-e master and the first significant print artist of modern Japan,” bridging Edo-period traditions and Meiji-era modernity.

This print is one of fifty-eight designs from a didactic series published by the Tokyo publisher Matsuki Heikichi. It depicts the dramatic moment just before Endō Moritō raises his sword to strike Kesa Gozen, the woman he desires, only to commit a tragic error. Kiyochika heightens the tension through stark lighting, compressed space, and a frozen instant of impending violence, underscoring the moral gravity of the episode.

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892), trained in the Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) school, is often remembered for the sensational and violent designs of his youth. Such works, however, tend to overshadow the subtlety, psychological insight, and artistic integrity that characterize much of his mature output, including this print from One Hundred Aspects of the Moon, completed late in his life.

The image illustrates a poem by the Heian-period poetess Akazome Emon, composed at the end of a long, sleepless night awaiting her lover:

I wish I had gone to bed at once;
now the night has passed,
and I watch the moon descend.

Yōshū Chikanobu (1838–1912) trained in the studios of Utagawa Kuniyoshi and Utagawa Kunisada and became one of the most accomplished ukiyo-e artists of the Meiji period. He is often credited with establishing a new ideal of feminine beauty, one that consciously revived the elegance and refinement of prints from a century earlier while adapting them to contemporary taste.

This print, Chikako, is one of fifty-eight designs from a didactic series published by the Tokyo publisher Matsuki Heikichi. It depicts the tragic figure of Chikako, whose father, ruined by debt and imprisoned, leaves her no means of redemption. In a futile act of filial piety, she throws herself into the icy waters of the Asano River. Chikanobu renders the scene with lyrical restraint, contrasting the serene winter landscape with the quiet gravity of her sacrifice.

Itō Takashi (1894–1982) was primarily a nihonga (Japanese-style) painter who intermittently designed woodblock prints for the shin hanga publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885–1962).

Known for images of Japan’s unspoiled landscapes, Itō often cast familiar scenery in dramatic seasonal and atmospheric conditions. In Spring Snow at Kamikōchi, the Japan Alps are transformed by lingering snow and swirling cloud, rendered in luminous, almost surreal hues. The juxtaposition of thawing water, bare branches, and peaks with lingering snow conveys both the severity of winter and the quiet emergence of spring.

Kawase Hasui depicts Lake Towada with Senjō Cliff rising along the far shore in early autumn. In the foreground, the gnarled branches of a lakeside tree bear leaves already turning yellow and beginning to fall, while a solitary white-sail boat drifts across the still water. The quiet composition and restrained palette convey the sense of solitude characteristic of Hasui’s landscapes.

Like many shin hanga prints produced for Watanabe Shōzaburō, the image is the result of an exacting collaborative process. This design required twenty carved woodblocks and twenty-five successive printings, layered to achieve its subtle color gradations and atmospheric depth.

Onchi Kōshirō (1891–1955) stands as one of the most innovative figures in twentieth-century Japanese art. Often credited with creating Japan’s first fully abstract woodblock print, Light Time (1915), he played a central role in redefining the possibilities of the medium. Onchi was also a founding member of the sōsaku hanga (creative print) movement, whose artists rejected the traditional division of labor and instead assumed responsibility for every stage of production—designing, carving, and printing their works themselves.

New Skin exemplifies Onchi’s mature experimental approach. Created for the dōjin (coterie) magazine Han geijutsu (Print Art), vol. 5, published in August 1932, the print fuses suggestive, bodily forms with non-representational elements. Through layered patterns, muted grays, and abrupt accents of red and blue, Onchi evokes renewal and transformation, allowing abstraction and figuration to coexist.

Yoshida Chizuko (1924–2017) is recognized as one of the most innovative Japanese print artists of the postwar period, constantly experimenting with new forms and ideas, embracing abstraction, surrealism, and naturalism. Exposed to the emerging discourse on the integration of Japanese cultural traditions with international modernist principles, Chizuko moved away from the academic realism of her earlier works toward more abstract compositions such as this 1954 design.

In Windows, she constructs a layered visual field in which translucent geometric planes overlap with simplified, biomorphic forms. At the upper left, faint architectural silhouettes suggest an urban skyline, while diagonal bands and intersecting lines imply interior space, movement, and reflections of a city at night. Her palette creates a nocturnal atmosphere, evoking the sensation of looking through illuminated windows into a city alive with motion. The print balances structure and ambiguity, allowing urban experience to register as rhythm, texture, and light rather than literal description.

Masaji Yoshida (1917-1971), a leading pupil of Onchi Kōshirō, developed an innovative sōsaku hanga technique in which multiple color blocks were cut from a single board and reassembled in a frame. Printing on heavily dampened, unsized paper, he achieved soft-edged, richly layered effects. 

In the artist's words, "In this print, I attempted to capture a new sense of the beauty of space and of the materials used.  I tried to combine the sense of boundless expanse of earth, a quietly pulsating expanse of earth, with a new spatial composition."

Hagiwara Hideo (1913–2007) was a leading figure in Japanese contemporary printmaking and one of the most internationally recognized print artists of the twentieth century. Although he worked across multiple media—including woodblock, lithography, etching, and stencil—he is best known for his technical and expressive innovations in woodblock printing. In 1967 he served as a guest professor at the University of Oregon, reflecting his close engagement with international art circles.

Flying Angel No. 3 exemplifies Hagiwara’s shift in the late 1960s toward a brighter, more saturated palette. Vivid orange fields, subtly enriched with mica, frame a constellation of playful, floating forms that suggest movement and buoyancy rather than literal representation. To achieve the etching-like linear textures, Hagiwara incised the woodblock with sharpened nails and applied inking methods inspired by intaglio printing. The result is a dynamic surface that blurs the boundaries between printmaking techniques, demonstrating the experimental spirit for which Hagiwara is renowned.

Rikio Takahashi (1917–1998) was an important pupil of Onchi Kōshirō (1891–1955), the seminal figure in modern Japanese printmaking. Working primarily in abstraction, Takahashi explored forms derived from gardens and the natural world, emphasizing atmosphere and seasonal transition rather than literal representation.

In NIWA (Birth of the Season), Takahashi evokes a Japanese garden awakening in early spring through the subtle overlay of translucent colors. Carefully modulated layers create shifting opacities and textures, while simplified, organic shapes suggest growth, light, and quiet renewal. The restrained palette and balanced composition exemplify Takahashi’s refined approach to abstraction, in which nature is distilled into rhythm, surface, and mood rather than described directly.

Sasajima Kihei (1906–1993), originally trained as an elementary school teacher, was introduced to printmaking in 1935 by Hiratsuka Un’ichi (1895–1997), a leading figure of the sōsaku hanga movement. After leaving teaching in 1945, Sasajima devoted himself fully to printmaking. Following a serious illness in 1959 that left him unable to print with a traditional baren, he devised an innovative method known as takuzuri. Inspired by stone rubbings, this technique presses paper deeply into heavily carved blocks and applies ink with pads to the raised surfaces, producing prints with pronounced relief and sculptural presence.

Fuji (Lake Ashi) B exemplifies this approach. One of at least fifteen Mount Fuji images Sasajima created, the print renders the sacred mountain in stark contrasts of black and white, its forms emerging powerfully from the paper’s surface. The dramatic embossing and simplified shapes transform the iconic landscape into a tactile, almost three-dimensional vision, emphasizing Fuji’s enduring monumentality and spiritual resonance.