Hashiguchi Goyô's talents were recognized by his father at an early age, and he stimulated him to study Japanese-style painting in Tokyo in 1899.
Hashiguchi Kiyoshi was born in 1880 in Kagoshima, southern Japan, and later attended the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, graduating at the top of his class in 1905. It was then that he chose the pseudonym Goyo (five leaves), in reference to the five-needle pines in his father's garden, which he particularly loved. He began working as an illustrator, notably for book covers.
He first worked as a book designer and illustrator, but he was disappointed by the lack of appreciation for his oil paintings. From 1911 he began a serious study of ukiyo-e, and in 1915 he designed his first woodblock print (Yuami - Bathing) for Watanabe Shôzaburô.
However, Goyo was not satisfied with the result achieved by Watanabe's craftsmen and ended their collaboration after this single print. From 1918 until his death, he personally oversaw the engraving, printing, and publishing of his own work in his studio. During this period, he produced 13 prints—four landscapes, one nature scene depicting ducks, and eight portraits of women. His oeuvre thus comprises fourteen prints, including The Bath. In late 1920, Goyo contracted meningitis and died in February 1921 at the age of 41.
Unfortunately, after his death, his heirs hijacked his artistic legacy, and the market was swamped by posthumous impressions and reprints. Goyô left several sketches from which his elder brother and nephew created seven more prints, and later ten more, all published in limited editions. Goyō Hashiguchi's prints are of exceptional technical quality. The woodblocks used to print the original fourteen prints, and many of the prints themselves, were destroyed in the 1923 earthquake. As a result, Goyō's works have become the most prized of all Shin-Hanga prints. Nevertheless, reprints of Goyô's prints are also available today. These reprints are marked with a seal in the margins (Yuyudo or Tanseisha editions).
