Woodcut By Takahashi Hiroaki (shotei) Before 1923

Takahashi Hiroaki's (Shotei) woodblock print "The Moon Rising over Naganuma before 1923."
Takahashi's story is inseparable from that of Watanabe Shozaburo, the creator of the Shin-Hanga style. Watanabe, the most famous print publisher of the 20th century, never left Japan but knew how to create the images that would seduce European and American collectors, images offering a romantic vision of the Japan that had ceased to exist at the end of the Edo period. Takahashi's drawings were the spearhead of his production. Watanabe hired him in 1907 and had him produce, under his supervision, the first emblematic drawings of the Shin-Hanga style. Takahashi then took the name "Shotei" and specialized in landscape drawing. Foreign tourists and collectors nostalgic for "old Japan" immediately adored the prints signed with his name.