Japanese Prints During the Allied Occupation 1945-1952 128 pages color and b&w photos Hard cover with dust jacket 28 x 22 cm English This book examines in detail how one school of printmakers, under the leadership of Onchi Koshiro (1889-1955), survived with difficulty the Pacific War and as artists found themselves among those calling for a new search for the nation's heart in its aesthetic traditions. They also received unexpected appreciation from connoisseurs among the occupying forces and administrators. Symbolic of this process was the meeting of the American graphic artist Ernst Hacker (1917-87), posted to Tokyo in April 1946, with Onchi and his circle and with Munakata Shiko (1903-75), who was then almost unknown. Prints and archives acquired by Hacker at that time and recently given to The British Museum by his widow form the unique basis of this study. This catalogue accompanies the exhibition at the British Museum, June 20 - September 1, 2002.
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