Woman after bath 1920
Hashiguchi Goyo is one of the most famous Shin Hanga woodblock print artists.
I discovered Goyo in 1976 in Tokyo when my eye catched a beautiful lady on a a poster in a department store. It appeared to be one of Goyo's woodblock prints. I still have the poster. Goyo studied traditional Japanese painting but soon switched to modern Western painting. He was a pupil of Kuroda Seiki and at the beginning of his career earned his living as a bookillustrator. In 1915 he made his first woodblock print published by Watanabe. Although the print was very succesful Goyo was not satisfied with the technical quality of the print and broke up with publisher Watanabe and started making woodblockprints on his own. Goyo's specialty was the "bijin", the beautiful woman. He was a very demanding artist and a perfectionist. Goyo made many drawings/sketches. His drawings demonstrate the large amount of energy he put in the preparation of his woodblock prints. They also show his great passion for the female beauty. In his short life he made only 14 woodblock prints. Predominantly beautiful women and a few landscapes. He established his fame as an artist with his beautiful almost classical "bijin" designs and the high level of technical perfection of his prints. He died much too early at the age of 41. Two years later, in 1923, during the great Kanto earthquake, the blocks he cut with so much compassion were burned to ashes.