These shin hanga or “new prints” maintained traditional methods and depicted traditional birds, flowers, and landscapes, but this long-established art found a new audience in Western collectors attracted by the powerful and alluring images of Japan. Wildly popular in Europe and the United States, many of these prints were created for sale abroad and even designed with foreign tastes in mind.
This exhibition brought together a selection of fukeiga (landscapes) and kachoga (bird and flower) shin hanga from the Smart Museum of Art’s collection, many of which were recent acquisitions that had never been shown before.