Letter from Okuyama
Image
Data
Description
We also have this mimeographed letter from Okuyama-san. Going by the content, it must have been distributed to his collectors/subscribers together with the initial print in the 'Landscapes of Japan' series, in May of 1948.
Here is the Japanese text, followed by an English translation:
日本風景版画第一回頒布
「暁の河口湖」に就いて
奥山儀八郎
やっと第一回河口湖の富士が出来ました。これを見て私はつくづく次の事を考えました。
今日では、広重でも北斎でも思うままに再版複製が出来ているが、私の版画を将来五十年も百年も経って、誰かが、複製しよ︎うとしても、これは出来ない事だと思った。それは私の版画は、その彫り方を日本の伝統的な彫師に一部分を彫らせ、あ︎る部分は（それは色版の大部を）私自身が彫るからです。
日本には現在、伝統版画の流儀と、創作版画の流儀があり、お互ひに、創作版画家は「伝統版画は職人の芸で芸樹︎でない」とくさし、伝統版画の側は「創作版画は要するに、善意の出鱈目さ」とけなしているが。これは、どちらの言分も正しいものではない。要するに、よ︎いものはよいので、創作版画でも伝統的版画でも芸術的価値︎のない作品はわるいのである。
私の版画はいわば伝統版画に創作版画を加えたものです。だから、私は彫刀を筆と同様に使うので、自分で彫っても板の堅さや、ノミの調子で二度と同じ調子には彫れないのです。まして、将来複製されて別人が彫る場合は決して同じものは出来ません。この意味でこの版の生命である。限定版三百枚、普及版七百枚（計千枚）はぎりぎりこれっきりの千枚であとがありません、複製のきがないオリジナルの千枚は目と共に価値が上るばかりです。
この河口湖には今まで私の版画にはなかった動きを與えることに苦心しました。現在富士は連作として「富士町の夕ぐれ」と「早春の薩埵峠」の三部が出来ています。
これからも富士を主題に次々と作品を作りたいと存じます。
一九四八、五、 於神田工房
'Landscapes of Japan' 1st Distribution
Notes on 'Dawn at Lake Kawaguchi'
Okuyama Gihachiro
Finally, the image of Mt. Fuji from Lake Kawaguchi has been completed. A few things occurred to me as I looked at it.
These days, it is a straight-forward matter to make reproductions of such designs as those of Hiroshige and Hokusai, but in the case of my prints, should somebody attempt to do this fifty or a hundred years in the future, I think that will not be possible. It is because the carving of my prints has been partly done by a traditional carver, and partly by myself (the bulk of the colour block carving).
In Japan, we currently have two styles of making prints, the 'traditional', and the 'creative'. People on the creative side feel that "The traditional craftsmen's work is not artistic", while the traditional makers feel "The creative workers have good intentions ..." Neither case is clearly correct. Simply put, good work is good, and work from either style that lacks artistic value is bad.
My prints incorporate the creative style into the traditional methods. I think of the carving knife as a brush, and even I myself, due to variations in the density of the wood and the condition of the tool, cannot attain the same result twice. If another carver in the future attempted to make a copy, it would simply be impossible. And in this, is the meaning of this work.
The limited edition of 300 pieces and the popular edition of 700 pieces (1,000 all together) are all that can exist, and without duplicates will thus increase in value.
For this 'Lake Kawaguchi', I struggled to create 'movement' that I had not been able to do before. To date, three prints related to Mt. Fuji are now done, including 'Evening in Fuji Village' and 'Early Spring at Satta Pass'.
I want to continue creating works one after another with Mt. Fuji as the theme.
May 1948, at the Kanda Workshop
