The tradition of <i>shin-hanga </i>landscape prints in the ethnic and cultural context of the transformation of Japan in the late 19 and early 20 centuries (as illustrated by Kawase Hasui works)
The article deals with some aspects of the development of Japanese woodblock printing tradition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the light of the drastic transformation of Japan during this period. After the Meiji Ishin Revolution, the country embarked on the path of total modernization, industrialization and social and cultural transformation. Against this background, the problem of searching the means to express the national identity of the Japanese was quite acute, and one of the tools of this search was Japanese art and particularly shin-hanga prints. The article considers two most representative (in our viewpoint) landscape prints by Kawase Hasui, one of the most outstanding artists of shin-hanga , as vivid examples of the functioning of the “new prints” in Japanese cultural environment of Taisho and Early Showa periods. The article discusses such problems as the decline of traditional uki- yo-e xylography; the search for new techniques and motifs; the impact of Western culture and the desire of Japanese print-makers to preserve the national essence of hanga art; the balance between ethnic tradition and innovation; the peculiarities of symbolism, ideology and conceptual content of shin-hanga and its reflection of cultural realities of the period of industrialization and renovation. The article points out that a certain interruption of cultural exchange between Japan and the Soviet Union in the pre-World War II period resulted in the poor presentation of shin-hanga art in the museums of Russia, the MAE RAS being among them.