More than 180 artists living and working in Japan created the 212 fine art prints in the College Women's Association of Japan Print Show Collection. The prints, dating primarily from 2003 to 2005, encompass a rich diversity of styles, printmaking techniques, and subject matter. The CWAJ show, an annual event in Tokyo, Japan, since 1956, is a renowned venue for contemporary Japanese creative print art, known as hanga.

A jury of leading Japanese art curators selected the 50th anniversary show prints and included both emerging printmakers and such long-established artists as Toko Shinoda, Fumio Kitaoka, and Reika Iwami. Non-Japanese creators include Clifton Karhu, Daniel Kelly and Joel Stewart. Biographical sketches for all the participating artists can be found in the 50th CWAJ Print Show catalogue. (Call Number: NE771.4 .C64a P&P Ref) For a full list of the artists, see the alphabetical Creator/Related Name Index.

Nearly all the prints in the 50th CWAJ Print Show were donated by the artists or their galleries to the Library of Congress in 2006 [view CWAJ Web site External]. This collection builds on the Library's strengths in both contemporary prints by artists from around the world and in early Japanese prints from the Edo and Meiji periods represented in the Fine Prints: Japanese area of the online catalog [view Japanese prints collection information].