Hanga
Woman Cutting Her Toenails by Hashiguchi Goyo — Japanese Woodblock print, ink on paper, 1953

Woman Cutting Her Toenails

by Hashiguchi Goyo

Shin-hanga
FiguresBijin-ga
Date:
1953
Medium:
Woodblock print, ink on paper
Format:
Oban
Dimensions:
38.7 × 26.5 cm
Edition:
Published by Watanabe Shozaburo

Description

A woman cutting her toenails — an intimate scene of private self-care rendered in the frank, observational mode that made Goyo's bijin-ga so different from the idealized, formal bijin of the ukiyo-e tradition. The subject requires the figure to bend forward, creating a posture that is neither elegant nor artificially posed, and Goyo's willingness to depict such an unguarded moment of ordinary femininity marks him as an artist as interested in real women as in conventional beauty. Printed posthumously from his original blocks.

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Female Bather Standing Before a Sink, Filling a Basin with Water, Taishô period, dated 1918 (7th month of Taishô 9) by Hashiguchi Goyo

Female Bather Standing Before a Sink, Filling a Basin with Water, Taishô period, dated 1918 (7th month of Taishô 9)

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Young Woman in Summer Kimono (natsu yosoi no musume) by Hashiguchi Goyo

Young Woman in Summer Kimono (natsu yosoi no musume)

1920

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Midas, Shôwa period, dated 1965? by Hideo Hagiwara

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Gundari Myôô, Shôwa period, dated 1962 by Kihei Sasajima

Gundari Myôô, Shôwa period, dated 1962

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Featured in Collections

Curated cross-cuts that include this print.

Shin-Hanga: Japan's Twentieth-Century Print RevivalBijin-ga: Japanese Beauty Prints

Frequently Asked Questions

Woman Cutting Her Toenails was created by Hashiguchi Goyo (橋口五葉) in 1953.

Woman Cutting Her Toenails was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1953).

Woman Cutting Her Toenails depicts figures and bijin-ga.

Woman Cutting Her Toenails measures 38.7 × 26.5 cm (Oban format).