Brown, Kendall H. “Out of the Dark Valley: Japanese Woodblock Prints and War, 1937-1945.” Impressions, no. 23, 2001, pp. 64–85. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42597893. Accessed 14 Mar. 2021.
Most of the famous Japanese Woodblock Prints were made during the 19th century although, prints made during 1937 through 1945 served a great purpose for the Japanese culture. Throughout WWII, and especially at the end with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan was in the middle of a societal/political shift from a more conservative and traditional society to “Taishõ ‘liberals’ and postwar democracy”. The prints were a way for artists to display their versions of Japan and with the growing conflict from the war, the Japanese Print Service Society was created in. 1943, as a way to collect and obtain materials such as ink, wood, and washi paper. Landscape prints from 1937 to 1945 show Japan as a “divine land {sumera no mikuni}” with these prints showing the beauty of land troubled with war.
Artist: Ito Shinsui (1898-1972)
Title: Purple Hood (Okoso Zukin)
Medium: Washi on Woodblock with Ink and Color
Date Created: 1950
Dimensions: 14 in by 20 in
Publisher: Watanabe Shozaburo
Location: Japan
References:
- https://www.woodblockprintsworld.com/purple-hood-ito-shinsui.html
very good