Hiroaki: Nude Before the Mirror (Sold)

Artist: Takahashi Hiroaki
Title: Nude Before the Mirror
Date: ca 1927

We see a modern girl (moga) in front of her mirror, drying her nude body with a towel. This type of moga is from a short-lived period in the 1920s-1930s when Japanese women were asserting more independence and breaking from their more traditional roles. The most obvious feature of moga were the bobbed haircuts, which were a huge break from the traditional long hair that was considered an important feature of beauty. This scarce design is beautifully printed, with the pink outlines of the body accentuated with blindprinting (karazuri) and the background printed with the baren-sujizuri technique that shows the swirling marks of the baren.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition.
Dimensions: 42.5 x 29.2 cm
Publisher: Fusui Gabô
Literature: Brown, Kendall H., Light in Darkness: Woman in Japanese Prints of Early Showa (1926-1945), 1996, cat. 9 Reigle Newland, Amy, and Hamanaka Shinji, The Female Image: 20th century prints of Japanese beauties, 2000, no. 149 Allen Hockley, ed; The Women of Shin Hanga, plate 46, page 194. Reigle Newland, Amy, gen. ed., Printed to Perfection: Twentieth-century Japanese Prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection, 2004, no. 14 Shimizu, Hisao, Syotei (Hiroaki) Takahashi: His Life and Works, 2005, pl. 318.
Seal: HIroaki and printer’s seal Onotomi
Signature: Hiroaki

SKU: HIA037