The Floating World
Woman at the Bath
Hashiguchi Goyō · 1915
What it is
A woman stands at her bath, water to her thighs, wringing a cloth — the print that began shin-hanga: the first bijin design Watanabe Shōzaburō published under his revival of the old publisher–carver–printer workshop.
Why it matters
Ukiyo-e as a living workshop craft had died with the nineteenth century. Watanabe wagered it could be reborn with new designers, and commissioned Goyō — a painter and book designer — to prove it. This sheet is the wager.
What to notice
The figure is drawn with almost no interior shading; everything depends on the carved line and the printer’s wiped tone. Where the water meets the skin, a single boundary does the work of a Western painter’s whole palette.
“An old craft does not die while one hand still remembers it.”
The record
- Artist
- Hashiguchi Goyō 橋口五葉 (1880–1921)
- Date
- 1915
- Publisher
- Watanabe Shōzaburō
- Medium
- woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons · Goyō Hashiguchi (1915) Yokugo no onna (cropped and compressed) 01.jpg
Impression note. The design lives in its gradations — the pale flesh tones and the soft grey ground are hand-wiped and differ from sheet to sheet. Fine impressions hold the water line crisp against the skin and keep the ground even, without mottling. Impression variance is real — printings differ in wiping and fading — and choosing the finest openly held impression is the curatorial act.
Public domain; faithfully reproduced.
Bring it home
Printed to order on EMA matte art paper, 200gsm.
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