1973 Spring Catalog

1973 Spring Catalog is a Japanese woodblock print by Fukita Fumiaki, produced in connection with the Red Lantern Shop, the Kyoto gallery and print publisher that served as one of the most important commercial outlets for postwar [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) artists working for an international audience. As the title suggests, the print was created for or featured in the shop's spring 1973 catalog, a now-collectible category of materials that documented the print scene of the period and circulated images of contemporary Japanese woodblock work to collectors in North America and Europe. The image is recorded in the Japanese Art Open Database ([ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e).org), which preserves it among the broader holdings tied to the Red Lantern Shop's catalog series. Fukita Fumiaki belongs to the generation of sosaku-hanga (creative print) practitioners who carried the movement's defining principles forward through the second half of the twentieth century: the artist personally designs, carves, and prints the work, rejecting the older ukiyo-e division of labor between designer, block-carver, and printer. Where ukiyo-e was a publisher-led commercial form, sosaku-hanga treats the woodblock print as a fully authored work of art, with each impression bearing the direct trace of the artist's hand on the block. Prints such as 1973 Spring Catalog reflect that ethos and the close relationship between independent Japanese printmakers and the gallery networks that introduced their work abroad. The Red Lantern Shop association situates Fukita Fumiaki within a recognizable Kyoto-centered circle of sosaku-hanga artists whose work shaped the international perception of Japanese woodblock printmaking during the 1960s and 1970s. The piece is an interesting document for collectors interested in the commercial and exhibition history of Japanese woodblock prints, in addition to the visual statement of the print itself, and it offers a useful entry point into Fukita Fumiaki's contribution to the sosaku-hanga tradition. Source: ukiyo-e.org (Japanese Art Open Database).