Hashiguchi Goyo (1880-1921) | Woman Dressing in Long Underrobe | Taisho period, early 20th century

Against a luxuriously printed silver mica ground, a tall slender figure stands in a state of undress, her long garment, or nagajuban, decorated with stylised butterflies and fringed pinks (nadeshiko) draped across her shoulders. She holds her green sash between her teeth. The area of her bare skin is left unprinted, save for the rosy blush under her eyes. The model is Kodaira Tomi, who is portrayed in other designs of Goyo’s small oeuvre.

Goyo studied at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, where he took an interest in Western-style painting (yoga). His work soon caught the attention of the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo (1885-1962) who invited him to design a new type of woodblock print. The result was the work Bathing (Yuami, 1915), marking one of the earliest instances of the shin-hanga, or ‘Revival Print’ movement that sought to reinvigorate the traditional ukiyo-e woodblock printing of the Edo period (1603-1868). Although Watanabe wished to continue the collaboration, Goyo decided to personally oversee the carving, printing and self-publication of his work without a publisher – markedly breaking away from the old Edo period printmaking model.

Goyo’s production of this new style of print totalled fourteen, with further output curtailed due to his early death due to meningitis at the age of forty-one. 

For another impression of the same print in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The MET), accession number JP2431, go to:

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/60012244

For a further impression in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 48.737, go to:

https://collections.mfa.org/objects/252839