Han Geijutsu Print Art Volume 10

A contribution to Han Geijutsu, the print-art journal that served as a primary publishing venue for the sosaku-hanga movement during the 1930s. The journal issued tipped-in original prints from contributing artists in each volume, giving subscribers access to first-state impressions pulled by the artists themselves. Hiratsuka's participation reflects his role as both practitioner and propagandist for the creative-print principle of jiga, jikoku, jizuri (self-drawn, self-carved, self-printed), which the journal explicitly championed against the divided labor of the shin-hanga workshops. Such journal prints were typically modest in size, executed in the bold black-and-white idiom Hiratsuka had developed by carving directly into katsura or cherry blockwood without preliminary detailed drawings. The format encouraged tight, graphically punctuated compositions suited to monochrome printing on thin washi. Within his catalogue, the Han Geijutsu prints document Hiratsuka's working relationships with peers including Onchi Koshiro and Maekawa Senpan, all of whom used the journal to circulate experimental work to a small but committed collector base.