Shin-Hanga

Yoshida Hiroshi

Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950) was another leading figure in the shin-hanga movement. Though he worked primarily as a painter for the first half of his career, he switched to woodblock printing after becoming interested in the process in his forties. Like many other prominent shin-hanga artists, Hiroshi worked with Shōzaburo Watanabe for a time before opening his own workshop. Although Watanabe was the largest exporter of shin-hanga prints, Hiroshi provided competition in the landscape market.[1] Unlike ukiyo-e artists and most other shin-hanga artists, Hiroshi was closely involved with the entire printmaking process, choosing to design the key blocks and supervise the printers himself. This was highly unusual, considering that the traditional division of labor for the woodblock printing process was split amongst the designer, the carver, and the printer. While the majority of his prints were landscapes, he also created a few scenes of night life in the cities.

In his Night in Kyoto (fig. 8), Hiroshi depicts a two-story building with lanterns of various shapes, sizes, and colors hanging around the windows and off the side of the building. The sky is dark and the pavement seems wet, as if it has been raining. There are two figures (likely women) standing outside the open door of the building, though whether they are entering, leaving, or just passing by is difficult to determine. There are numerous lights on within the building, though the light coming through the windows and spilling out onto the street is soft and not very bright. The utilization of contrast is also apparent. Much of the building itself is unidentifiable because of how dark the night is, though this is juxtaposed with the illumination of the lanterns and windows. The tones give the effect of a watercolor. While many of the details in this print are hidden because of the dark palette, the locale seems very clean. Perhaps this is because nighttime obscures much of what we do not wish to see, or perhaps because the rain has washed away the filth of the city.

Another of Hiroshi’s prints from the same year, A Little Restaurant (at Night) (fig. 9), depicts a similar scene to Night in Kyoto. A woman stands outside of a restaurant, her face tilted towards the ground. Her reflection can be seen on the wet pavement of the street. Just as in Night in Kyoto, there are numerous lanterns hanging on the outside of the building around the doorway and windows, and there is soft light shining through the windows of the restaurant. The light from the lanterns and windows are in gradients of yellow, pink, and orange, offering up a sense of realism. Despite the utilization of more muted colors in this print, the tiny details, such as the rice bowls perched on the windowsill or the writing on the lanterns, are still noticeable upon closer inspection. As in Night in Kyoto, Hiroshi plays with contrast; the stone walls of the building contrast with the delicateness of the paper lanterns and window screens, and the warmth coming from within the restaurant contrasts with the darkness and dampness outside. This image is both a lonely and a pensive one. Because the woman’s face is downcast, her thoughts are intangible. She is also the solitary figure in the scene, and the mood set by the colors and the environment is very much one of melancholy.
 
[1] Helen Merritt, Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: The Early Years (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990), 81.

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