전후 일본 판화와 냉전 = Post-War Japanese Prints and the Cold War

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

One of the most significant challenges Japan faced following its defeat in the Asia-Pacific War was the realization of democracy. The creation of a “new Japan,” divorced from militarism and fascism, was imperative, and democracy was prescribed as the primary means to achieve this transformation. Across the political, economic, social, and cultural spheres, democracy was upheld as an absolute value. Despite ideological confrontations, both the liberal and communist camps advocated for “democracy.” The two camps contested which system was more “democratic”: democracy based on freedom or democracy based on equality. During the formative years of postwar Japanese democracy, printmaking emerged as a medium imbued with “democratic” potential. The tension and rivalry between democracy based on freedom and that based on equality are likewise evident in post-war Japanese printmaking.
This paper examines two printmaking networks that developed between 1947 and the 1950s: the Creative Print network, which connected woodcut, freedom, and the United States; and the People’s Print network, which linked woodcut, equality, and China, with particular attention to the emergence of the Cold War. This study compares how the material and expressive characteristics of woodcuts aligned with the contrasting visions of democracy held by the two ideological camps. It further explores the significance of the American boom in Japanese Creative Prints fostered by the Creative Print network, and the Japanese enthusiasm for Chinese woodblock prints that gave rise to the People’s Print network—impacting not only for Japan but also for the United States and China.