The Shin Hanga ("new prints": 新版画) movement extolled the virtues of the traditional ukiyo-e studio system, the so-called "ukiyo-e quartet" involving the artist, carver, printer, and publisher. Its philosophy was at odds with thesôsaku hanga ("creative print") movement, which avidly supported the direct involvement of the artists in designing, engraving, and printing their own works.
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At the center of the shin hanga movement was the publisher Watanabe Shôzaburô (1885-1962). Watanabe believed that shin hanga were not fukusei hanga ("reproduction prints": 復製版画) as charged by the sôsaku hanga advocates, and that such prints were certainly "creative" as long as the artist could achieve the results he wanted with the assistance of craftsmen.
In such a collaborative system the artist could benefit from the skills of the artisans in producing works of art in a medium he could not otherwise use so skillfully on his own. Artistic expression was therefore supported, not violated. In response to criticism, Watanabe began using the termshinsaku hanga ("newly created prints") in 1921 to emphasize the creative aspects of the shin hanga method
The shin hanga movement flourished from around 1915 to 1942, though it resumed briefly from 1946 through the 1950s. Watanabe and other shin hangapublishers produced the works of both native Japanese artists and Western artists who created images in the Japanese manner. Their studios issued designs recalling the themes of traditional ukiyo-efiltered through a modern sensibility, with subjects such as landscapes and cityscapes, beautiful women, actor portraits, and nature prints. link
other Shin Hanga artists
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