Natsugoromo no onna (Woman in a Summer Garment)

Date

1920

Description

Creator of the image: Goyo Hashiguchi
Date of the image creation: 1920
Medium of the image: Woodblock print
Person depicted:

According to the Toledo Museum of Art where the print is held: ‘Here Goyo has depicted his model and lover Nakatani Tsuru, a waitress at Osaka’s Icho restaurant, kneeling before a mirror as she holds closed her sheer summer robe and gazes out at the viewer. Created at a time when rapid changes concerning women in Japanese society threatened the established notions of appearances and roles, the print seems to bring the past and present together. The woman is a tantalizing beauty in the manner of ukiyo-e images, yet has a presence and a sense of self-possession that seem entirely modern.’

Goyo Hashiguchi (1880–1921) was a Japanese artist who is best known for his colour woodblock prints. His father, a samurai and amateur painter, made him study painting from the age of ten, and thereafter at Tokyo School of Fine Arts where he graduated as the top of his class in 1905. His brief life was plagued by health problems — including beriberi and then meningitis — which made for a somewhat tragic end. It took Goy? many years to establish himself as a self-producing artist with independence and control over his creations. He had only two years in full flight, during which time he produced 12 prints before his life was cut short. These prints are now considered to be of extremely high quality and are sold at huge prices.

Goyo’s prints are reminiscent of a style of art developed in the Edo period in which woodcuts depicting beautiful women known as ‘ukiyo-e’, or ‘pictures of the floating world’. In the twentieth century, the technical skill of the artists practicing this tradition reached a peak, and incorporated aspects of Western influence, such as a degree of realism and spatial volume absent from more traditional Japanese art. Goyo’s ‘Woman in a Summer Garment’ is an excellent example of this.

Quotes

No quotes found.