Back of Mt Fuji, from the series New hundred views of Japan

Fukazawa Sakuichi was a self-taught print artist who began exhibiting at the Japan Creative Print Association exhibition from 1922. Despite the quality of his work, Fukazawa has often been sidestepped in the historical survey of the creative prints in Japan. This may be due to the fact that in the 1920s, as the Creative Print Association was firmly established, many print artists emerged working with distinct styles such as Kawakami Sumio, Kawanishi Hide and Maekawa Senpan, to name a few.

This series of prints is a unique set of prints in two ways: at least thirty contemporary artists collaborated in a single series of landscape prints, depicting both famous places & scenery of modern urban life. This series is a product of the Creative Print Movement, a modern movement in printmaking which began early in the 20th century by artists who designed, blockcut & printed their own work with a clear intention of creating works of art as opposed to `surimono', reproductions. Due to the intensification of WWII, publication of the series was stopped by the Japanese authorities who feared that the interior of Japan would become known to its enemies.