Nihon no shiro 日本の城
FSC-GR-780.77
Commentary by Alicia Volk
Posted October 17, 2016

From the beginning of his printmaking career in the 1930s until the 1970s and beyond, Hashimoto Okiie took as his singular motif the imposing Japanese castle, numerous historic examples of which dot the country’s landscape. The artist’s first printed book, Nihon no shiro (Japanese castles), was issued at the height of the Pacific War in 1944 and features twelve multicolor woodcuts depicting castles under varying seasonal conditions. Two years later, shortly following the end of the war, Hashimoto published Kojō jūkei 古城十景 (Ten views of old castles) with the same publisher, the Katō Hanga Kenkyūjo (Katō Print Institute). This Tokyo-based firm was established by Katō Junji 加藤潤二 (also known as Katō Junzō 加藤順造), and from the mid-1930s it produced prints by some of Japan’s most talented artists.

Hashimoto’s printed images are preceded by a text also titled “Nihon no shiro” by the well-known architectural scholar Kishida Hideto (1899–1966). Kishida recounts a history of the evolution of Japanese castles, emphasizing the refined aesthetic sensibility of these structures that he feels are so beautiful as to belie their role in warfare. In this regard, Kishida argues, they differ from European castles, having developed autonomously from Western influence. As such, they are a true Japanese (nihonteki na 日本的な) architectural form. He makes no mention of the war, which is likewise absent from Hashimoto’s prints, save for a small woodcut printed in black sumi ink of a warrior’s helmet (kabuto 兜) that closes the book.

Japanese castles are typically grand structures, and it may have been in order to capture a sense of their glory that Hashimoto often worked on a large scale, sometimes creating single-sheet prints as sizeable as substantial paintings of the day—over three feet wide and nearly that tall. The bound prints of Nihon no shiro, on the other hand, possess a tactile intimacy afforded by the smaller book format. The viewer encounters colorful scenes in Hashimoto’s exuberant style: Chiyoda Castle (or Edo Castle, the former seat of the Tokugawa shoguns, known from 1868 as the Imperial Palace) in present-day Tokyo; Hirosaki, Hikone, Inuyama, Okayama, Kōchi, Himeji, Komoro, Ōgaki, and Matsuyama castles; and Nagoya and Osaka castles. Tragically, the structures in Nagoya and Osaka would be devastated by aerial bombings in 1945, less than one year after the release of Nihon no shiro.

Although fiercely proud of the “self-designed, self-carved, and self-printed” (jiga jikoku jizuri 自画自刻自摺) ethos of “Creative Prints” (sōsaku hanga 創作版画), Hashimoto relied upon Yokoi Yoshikazu 横井義一 to print the images in Nihon no shiro from blocks he had carved himself. Yokoi generally worked for another Tokyo publisher, Doi Hangaten 土井版画店 (Doi Woodblock Print Shop); both the Katō Print Institute and the Doi Hangaten were publishers of “New Prints” (shin hanga 新版画), which were produced collaboratively in the traditional manner. Yet, Hashimoto still retained artistic control, as he later explained:

For my published works I request the services of a trusted master printer. Even in this case, though, after carving the blocks I do two or three trial printing runs until I have printed the work to my satisfaction. I give this model to the printer, who prints the work using identical materials and techniques. [1]

Considering its creation during wartime, when paper and other materials were in scarce supply and highly regulated, Nihon no shiro is an impressive publication. This book celebrating Japan’s castles—a potent symbol of the enduring strength of the Japanese people and heritage—may have helped hearten a populace weary of Japan’s long and increasingly difficult war.

Selected readings:

Hashimoto Okiie, Atarashii hanga no michibikikata 『新しい版画の導き方』 (Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppansha, 1953).

Hashimoto Okiie, Hashimoto Okiie Nihon no shiro zenhangashū 『橋本興家日本の城全版畫集』 (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1978).

Hashimoto Okiie, Nihon no meijō hangashū 『日本の名城版画集』 (Tokyo: Nihon Jōkaku Kyōkai, 1962).

Jack Hillier, The Art of the Japanese Book, 2 vols. (London: Sotheby’s Publications by Philip Wilson Publishers, 1987), see esp. vol. 2, 1044–45.

Lawrence Smith, Modern Japanese Prints 1912–1989: Woodblocks and Stencils (London: British Museum Press, 1994), 46.

Copies in other collections:

British Museum, London
Columbia University Libraries, New York
Harvard University Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Kyoto University Library of Graduate School of Letters and Faculty of Letters
National Diet Library (NDL), Tokyo
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts
Princeton University, East Asian Library, Princeton, New Jersey
Reed College Library, Portland, Oregon
Tohoku University Library, Sendai
University of California (UC) Berkeley Library

[1] Author’s translation, from Hashimoto 1978, 133.