was a Japanese print publisher and the driving force behind one of the woodblock printmaking movements known as ''

shin-hanga was an art movement in early 20th-century Japan, during the Taishō and Shōwa periods, that revitalized the traditional '' ukiyo-e'' art rooted in the Edo and Meiji periods (17th–19th century). It maintained the traditional ''ukiyo-e' ...

'' ("new prints").

Biography

He started his career working for the export company of , which gave him an opportunity to learn about exporting art prints. In 1908, Watanabe married Chiyo, a daughter of the woodblock carver Chikamatsu. Watanabe employed highly skilled carvers and printers, and commissioned artists to design prints that combined traditional Japanese techniques with elements of contemporary Western painting, such as perspective and shadows. Watanabe coined the term ''shin-hanga'' in 1915 to describe such prints. , Hashiguchi Goyō, Charles W. Bartlett, Itō Shinsui,

Kawase Hasui was a Japanese artist who was one of 20th century Japan's most important and prolific Japanese woodblock printing, printmakers. He was a prominent designer of the ''shin-hanga'' ("new prints") movement, whose artists depicted traditional subject ...

, Ito Takashi, Yoshida Hiroshi, Kasamatsu Shirō,

Torii Kotondo Torii Kotondo (, 21 November 1900 – 13 July 1976) or Torii Kiyotada V () was a Japanese painter and woodblock printer of the Torii school of ukiyo-e artists. He followed his school's tradition of making prints of kabuki actors (''ya ...

Ohara Koson Ohara Koson (also Ohara Hōson, Ohara Shōson) (Kanazawa 1877 – Tokyo 1945) was a Japanese painter and woodblock print designer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at the forefront of '' shinsaku-hanga'' and ''shin-hanga'' art movem ...

Tsuchiya Koitsu Tsuchiya Kōitsu () was a Japanese artist in the Shin-hanga movement. He trained under the ukiyo-e master Kobayashi Kiyochika for 19 years, and initially focused on works depicting scenes from the First Sino-Japanese War. In 1931, at the age of ...

and

Yamakawa Shūhō was a Japanese painter active in the Taishō and Shōwa period, Shōwa eras, as well as a printmaker of the Shin-hanga movement. He was born in Kyoto with the name Yamakawa Yoshio. His first teacher, Ikegami Shūhō (1874-1944), gave him the ...

are among the artists whose works he published. Much of his company's stockpile of both prints and their original printing-blocks was destroyed in the

Great Kantō earthquake Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" * Artel Great (bo ...

of 1923. In the following years, new versions of many of these prints were created, using re-carved blocks; typically, the re-issued "post-quake" prints included changes and revisions in the designs. Watanabe exported most of his ''shin-hanga'' prints to the United States and Europe due to a lack of Japanese interest. After the close of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, his heirs continued the business, which still operates. Watanabe designed two prints himself under the name "Kako": ''Sunset Glow at West Park in Fukuoka'' and ''Lake Kawaguchi''.Rijksmuseum
/ref> File:Avondgloed in het Nishi park in Fukuoka Fukuoka nishi koen no yusho (titel op object), RP-P-1994-1.jpg, ''Sunset Glow at West Park in Fukuoka'', 1936 File:Het meer Kawaguchi Kawaguchiko (titel op object), RP-P-1994-2.jpg, ''Lake Kawaguchi'', 1937

References

* Machida Shiritsu Kokusai Hanga Bijutsukan, ''Taishō jojō shinhanga no bi ten, Watanabe Shōzaburō to shinhanga undō'', Tokyo, Machida-shi, Machida Shiritsu, Kokusai Hanga Bijutsukan, 1989. * Miles, Richard and Jennifer Saville, ''A Printmaker in Paradise, The Art and Life of Charles W. Bartlett, with a catalogue raisonné of etchings and color woodblock prints'', Honolulu, Hawaii, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 2001

Footnotes

External links

Biography and further information
The Lavenberg Collection of Japanese Prints
S. Watanabe Color Print Co.
Online Shop
Catalogue of Wood-Cut Colour Prints of S. Watanabe, 1936
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watanabe, Shozaburo 1885 births 1962 deaths Japanese editors Japanese publishers (people) Japanese art Japanese printmakers