Takahashi Shōtei


Takahashi Shōtei, born Hiroaki was a 20th-century Japanese woodblock artist in the shin-hanga art movement.

Biography

Hiroaki Takahashi was born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1871. As a young artist he was given the artistic name Shotei by his uncle, Matsumoto Fuko, under whose tutelage he was apprenticing. When he was 16 years old, he started a job with the Imperial Household Department of Foreign Affairs, where he copied the designs of foreign ceremonial objects. As with many Japanese woodblock artists over his lifetime he signed his work with various names and worked for several publishing companies. After studying art, Shotei and Terazaki Kogyo founded the Japan Youth Painting Society in 1889. In 1907, as a successful artist, he was recruited by Shōzaburō Watanabe to contribute to the Shin Hanga art movement in Japan. Watanabe helped to fulfill the Western demand for Ukiyoe woodblock prints which would be similar to familiar historical masters of that genre, including Hiroshige. In about 1921 Shotei added the artistic name of Hiroaki. In 1923 the Great Kanto earthquake destroyed Watanabe's facilities; this included all Shin Hanga woodblocks. Thus, Shotei recreated prior designs destroyed in the Great Kanto earthquake and also continued to produce new woodblocks. Shotei died of pneumonia on February 11, 1945. There is a persistent rumor that he died in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, but this is incorrect. Since Watanabe produced artwork for Western collectors there are numerous copies of Shotei woodblocks in Western museums including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts.