Scenes of Last Tokyo

Japanese Creative Prints from 1945

In the early 20th century a new artistic movement emerged in Japan: the Sosaku Hanga (Creative Print) movement.Breaking away from traditional printing methods, which involved a division of labour in publishers’ studios, Creative Print artists designed, cut and printed their own work. The Scenes of Last Tokyo series, a collaboration between nine of the leading print artists of the time, was published in 1945, shortly after the end of World War II. The series shows nostalgic views of fifteen famous places in Tokyo as they were before wartime air raids destroyed much of the city.

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