Morita Kanya as Kitsune Tadanobu in 'Yoshisune senbon-zakura'

The major Japanese 20th century printmaker Natori Shunsen (1886-1960) first worked for the principal publisher of shin-hanga ('modern prints'), Watanabe Shōzaburō, in 1916 and was well-known in America through his exhibitions at the Toledo Museum of Art. Shunsen was one of the first to re-establish his relationship with the publisher after the war, and his works were immediately popular. Their appeal, as of shin-hanga generally, was due largely to their direct, accessible, naturalism. They reflected the experiences of Western visitors, and they confirmed an 'imagined Japan' for collectors in America.

Natori's portrait of the actor Morita Kan'ya XIV illustrates two important characteristics of ukiyo-e theatre prints.  First, it is an okubi-e, or 'big-head picture'. The close-up format allowed artists to design recognisable portraits of actors in key roles or expressive poses: note the glaring eyes, grimacing face and flushed cheeks. This psychological realism is a new element in the genre. Second, artists of the early 20th-century shin-hanga print revival movement retained the services of skilled block cutters and printers, and redefined the stylistic tropes of the genre. Natori maintains the Japanese-style idioms that he had learned while studying Nihonga, ‘Japanese painting’, under Kubota Beisen (1852–1906), Kubota Kinsen (1875–1954) and Hirafuku Hyakusui (1877–1933). His shin nigao-e, 'new actor portraits', in the okubi-e format are recognisable but finely stylised, their simply delineated subjects positioned against plain, sometimes textured, backgrounds. Natori's prints were popular with his Japanese public, but they reflected another departure in Japanese print publication, commanding a parallel appeal in the markets of North America.

Sources:

David Bell, 'A new vision: modern Japanese prints from the Heriot collection', Tuhinga, 31 (2020), fothcoming.

David Bell and Mark Stocker, 'Rising sun at Te Papa: the Heriot collection of Japanese art', Tuhinga, 29 (2018), https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/document/10608

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art    May 2019