Ide, Gakusui (1899 - 1982 )
Born in Yamanashi prefecture, Gakusui Ide studied Japanese-style painting with Tamon Yamanouchi and Kanpo Araki. Living in China between 1929 and 1946, he commenced his career as a woodblock artist after returning to Japan in 1949. In Japan, Gakusui also worked with the famed Shin Hanga publisher Shozaburo Watanabe, focusing on kacho-e (bird-and-flower pictures). He is particularly known for his prints of cranes and herons, which feature distinctly bold geometric lines.
Shin Hanga | Pre-WWII Japanese Prints
By the beginning of the 20th century the social fabric of Japan was radically altered and ukiyo-e was falling fast into oblivion. Surprisingly, it was under the stimulus of the Western art world that the spirit of ukiyo-e was reborn through the Shin Hanga or “new print” movement. The discovery of the powerful impact of ukiyo-e print masters on the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists inspired a new generation of Japanese print artists who revived distinctly Japanese subject matter through modern eyes. International excitement for ukiyo-e paved the way for these artists to create woodblock prints with the same dignity, perfection and genius as the masters of the Edo period. As artists such as Goyo, Kotondo and Shinsui revived bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women) and Hasui and Yoshida reinterpreted the landscape of Japan, Shin Hanga reasserted the principal genres of ukiyo-e with a renewed vigor. Browse our collection of Shin Hanga and other pre-war Japanese artworks today.
