Edutainment > Kajita Hanko - 1870-1919

Kuchi-e
Bathing - 1908

Kajita Hanko is one the artists in transition from old traditional Ukiyo-e to modern Japanese prints. Like Kaburagi Kyokata or Tomioka Eisen he earned his living mainly with illustrations - often for serial novels of the soap opera kind, passionately read mainly by women. It is astonishing what artists like Kajita Hanko made out of it.

Son of a Metalwork Artist

Hanko was born in Tokyo under the given name of Kajita Jojiro. His father was a well-known metalwork artist. At the early age of 11 he was apprenticed to the Shijo painter Nabeta Gyokuei. Around 1890 he took the artist name Hanko.

Kuchi-e and the Demon of Gold

Kuchi-e

The Demon of Gold was a popular novel series published by the Tokyo newspaper Yomiuri Shinbun. Hanko Kajita made most of the illustrations for this series. The illustrations were added as supplements to the novel. They are known under the name of Kuchi-e.

Kuchi-e were produced like traditional woodblock prints on a high standard and were often published as deluxe editions - luxuriously enriched with such techniques like embossing or mica. Kuchi-e were meant to encourage sales and therefore were made to look attractively. In order to fit as insertions, kuchi-e were folded either once in the middle or twice.

Teaching Art

In 1898 Kajita worked at the art school of Takaoka City in Toyama Prefecture. Before the turn of the century he had established his own private school in Tokyo. Kajita had great influence on the younger generation and trained artists like Maeda Seison, Togyo Okumara and Kokei Kobayashi.

Hanko Kajita died at the age of only 47 of tuberculosis.

Literature sources used for this Kajita Hanko biography

• Helen Merritt and Nanako Yamada, "Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900-1975", published by University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, ISBN 0-8248-1732-X
• Amy Reigle Stephens, "The New Wave - Twentieth Century Japanese Prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection", Bamboo Publishing Ltd. London and Hotei - Japanese Prints, Leiden, ISBN 1-870076-19-2

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