Goyō: “Rain at Yabakei Valley, Kyûshû (Yabakei)”. This is Goyô’s first work as both an artist and publisher, from a scene he sketched in 1910. (Sold)
Artist: Hashiguchi Goyō
Title: “Rain at Yabakei Valley, Kyûshû (Yabakei)”. This is Goyô’s first work as both an artist and publisher, from a scene he sketched in 1910.
Date: 1918
In his study of two sketchbooks by Goyô, Iwakiri Shinichiro* empasizes the importance of Goyô’s journey to Beppu and Yabakei in 1910 (Meiji 43). One of them contains landscape sketches of the area in Oita Prefecture such as those for Early Summer in Yabakei and other notable watercolor paintings. The original design of the print Yabakei is entitled Uchû no Yamakunigawa Kenpi (Running in the rain along the Yamakuni River) . This sketch is the exact scene of Goyô’s masterpiece: a cart with a large umbrella of the carter and a small one of a child, trotting solitarily in a rain in grand nature. It was eight years later when he realized Yabakei into a print which successfully manifest his own taste of lyric scene. This print was his first work both as an artist and a publisher. For this print he established a new production team: He an artist, chose and hired an engraver, Takano Shichinosuke and a printer, Somekawa Kanzô. He even lived with them to improve mutual understanding for his works. He produced two variations of Yabakei, changing method and color scheme. As a result the rain and the atmosphere are different: the first one with pensive color and the second one with light and cheeful tone. He might have thinking of the rainy landscapes by Hiroshige, whom he found a common ground of taste. In 1910 he become 30 years old but financially depended on his brothers. In 1908 and 1909 his works were not selected for the art exhibition sponsored by Ministry of Education. After these cruicial years Goyô established his own art which is manifested in this print. *UKIYO-E ART#87, The Japan Ukiyo-e Society, 1986. p.i
Dimensions: 500x375 mm
Literature: T.Ono: Hashiguchi Goyô-Sketches of Beauties, Sanshô-dô Tokyo, 1976. Uhlenbeck:Printed to Perfection, Amsterdam, 2004.ill.43.
Seal: Engraver: Takano Shichinosuke; Printer: Somekawa Chûjirô
Signature: Goyô ga with seal “Goyô”
SKU: GOY006