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- having full control of the printmaking process, so he soon left Watanabe to set up his own studio where he would personally supervise the carving of the blocks and the printing of each print. He produced only small editions and hence his prints are quite rare and valuable.
Goyo became a collector and connoisseur of ukiyo-e prints and had an extensive knowledge of them, having jointly edited a major book on the subject. He admired the classic works of Kiyonaga and Utamaro, and used a powdered mica background similar to the prints by Utamaro and Choki. Goyo's prints were much softer and more elegant than his ukiyo-e prede�cessors and his prints have a definite feel of three dimensionality. He paid great attention to detail especially in the hairstyles and kimonos worn by his subjects. His favourite model was Nakatani Tsuru, a waitress at an Osaka restaurant. She is always seen in mysterious and sensual poses. Goyo did do some outstanding landscapes, but he is most remembered for his female figures. He died at the early age of 42 from an ear infection, the aftermath of a severe case of influenza. He only completed fourteen different subjects. Hence his prints are very valuable due to their scarcity. Because of the great demand for his prints, his family had some of his unfinished images com�pleted and posthumously published.
The second most significant shin hanga artist to produce pictures of beauties was Shinsui Ito (1896-1972) who worked with Watanabe all his life. Shinsui, like Goyo, painted his beauties "in the round" and was able to successfully combine Western and Eastern techniques. By using uneven shading, he was able to create a sense of three dimensions. His beauties demonstrate a delicate decadence, and appealling charm and are full of youthful innocence. He used goma-zuri for background in which circular traces of the printer's baren edge created a special swirling or coiling effect of darker colour against a plain ground. He was also exceptionally talented when it came to making landscape prints. During his lifetime, he was recognized as one of Japan's greatest living artists. He died in 1972.
Another outstanding shin hanga artist who produced bijin-e was Kotondo Torii (1900-1976), who was a descendent of the famous Torii ukiyo-e school, which was noted for portraits of kabuki actors. His prints were published by Sakai and Kawaguchi. At first he designed prints after Goyo and Shinsui, but soon developed his own unique style. He depicted women of all walks of life, portraying them in an aloof and refined manner. His prints have a soft flushed colour and are noted for beautiful lines, as well as for his sumptuous detailed and complex depictions of kimono patterns. He often depicted women nude or fixing their hair.
Kiyoshi Kobayakawa (1898-1948), an accomplished Nihonga or Japa�nese style painter, published his bijin-e prints in 1919 while still a young man. He published his prints with Watanabe and Hasegawa. His prints
AGGV COLLECTS/SHIN HANGA 27
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