Goyo Hashiguchi was a Japanese artist, illustrator and book designer. He was recognized for his paintings of beautiful women called Bijin-ga, one of the genres of Shin-hanga style based on European Impressionism, combined with Western style elements.
Background
Goyo Hashiguchi was born on December 21, 1880 in Kagoshima, Japan. He was a son of Kanemizu Hashiguchi, a samurai and an amateur Shijo-style painter.
Goyo had an elder brother, Yasuo Hashiguchi, who also became a painter, in the Western-style.
In his youth, Hashiguchi revealed his interest in Kano-school painting.
Education
Goyo Hashiguchi received his first drawing lessons in Kyoto where he came in 1899 from a Kano style painter, Hashimoto Gaho.
Then, Goyo turned to Western-style painting becoming a pupil of a famous Japanese painter Kuroda Seiki, and joined the Hakuba-kai (Western Painting Institute). Later, Hashiguchi pursued his studies at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts which he successfully graduated in 1905.
Career
Goyo Hashiguchi received his first commission in 1905 from Natsume Sōseki introduced to the artist by his elder brother, Hashiguchi Yasuo, to design the author’s most famous novel 'Wagahai wa neko de aru' ('I Am a Cat'). This order was followed by more illustrations to the writings by Futabatei Shimei, Uchida Roan (ja), Morita Sōhei, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Nagai Kafū, and Kyōka Izumi.
Two years after the debut commission, Hashiguchi presented his creations at the Tokyo Industrial Exhibition and at the Ministry of Education Arts Exhibition, called Bunten, organized in Tokyo. The works demonstrated at the first one, were met with favor while the second one disappointed the artist by the bead reviews received for his oil paintings.
However, Hashiguchi had a success in 1911 with his poster depicting a beautiful woman designed for the Mitsukoshi department store. Since that time, the artist became interested in the works of ukiyo-e artists on which he wrote several articles, including the writings about Utamaro, Hiroshige and Harunobu.
In 1915, the artist created a print called ‘Nude After Bathing’ for the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo. This work became the first in the 'Shin Hanga' movement. The collaboration stopped, and Hashiguchi founded his own workshop.
The following two years, the artist supervised "Japanese Color Prints" ('Ukiyo-e fuzoku Yamoto nishikie') which gathered about 200 recreated woodblock copies of early masters. He combined this activity with painting from live models, one of whom was Kitagawa Utamaro.
From 1918, Goyo Hashiguchi directed the carving, printing, and publication of his own works, including his famous landscape with ducks including. His last print, "Hot Spring Hotel", was not finished by himself.