Artist · 11 prints
Takahashi Shotei Prints
About Takahashi Shōtei
Takahashi Shōtei (1871–1945), who later also signed as Hiroaki, was a Japanese painter and printmaker born in Tokyo. He trained with his uncle, the painter Matsumoto Fūko, who gave him the name Shōtei, and as a teenager worked for the Imperial Household copying the designs of foreign ceremonial objects. He also worked as a newspaper and magazine illustrator. In 1907 the publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō recruited him to design woodblock prints, the first artist he hired. Shōtei died of pneumonia in Tokyo in 1945.
Shōtei made hundreds of designs for Watanabe: quiet landscapes, rain and snow scenes, harbours, and animals such as cats and rats. This work fed into shin-hanga, the early twentieth-century revival of traditional Japanese woodblock printing. The Great Kantō earthquake of 1923 and the fires that followed destroyed Watanabe's workshop and all of Shōtei's woodblocks, and he went on to recreate earlier designs and make new ones. His prints are held by the British Museum and the Rijksmuseum.
Takahashi Shōtei prints: reproductions of the Japanese shin-hanga woodblock prints Takahashi Shōtei designed for the publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō. The collection includes Nekata (Cherry Blossoms) (1922), Junks in Inatori Bay, Izu (1926), The Red Gate of Hongo in Snow (1926), Moon at Egota, Tokyo (1926) and Mount Fuji from Lake Yamanaka.
This selection concentrates on Shōtei's snow, night and moonlit scenes: a plum tree in snow, a snowy mountain path at evening, Asakusa in snow and a starry night. Mount Fuji, harbour boats and figures enjoying the evening cool complete it. The palettes are muted blues, greys and soft reds, with small figures in wide landscapes.
The calm palettes suit bedrooms, studies and hallways, and the prints work well on smaller walls or hung in a row. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with low-glare acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
