The Japanese artist Yokouchi Ginnosuke (1870-1942) is primarily known as a painter of impressionistic landscape watercolors. Thousands of his paintings were sold to the Western tourist trade in Japan during the 1920's and 1930's. Many of his watercolors, for example, Lake Chuzenji in Autumn, can still be found today for reasonable prices. Unbeknownst to many collectors, this same artist also made several woodblock prints in the shin hanga style. What is particularly remarkable about Yokouchi's finely detailed prints, is that they were made without the aid of a publishing house.
Yokouchi Ginnosuke was acquainted with both Kawase Hasui and Hiroshi Yoshida, and may have been inspired by their success as woodblock artists. Around 1935, he began carving and printing his own blocks. Like other shin hanga of this period, Yokouchi's prints are highly romanticized meisho-e that depict famous sites around Tokyo and Kyoto. His prints evoke the old Japan, before modern technology took over the landscape. Although a few of Yokouchi's prints bear his own name, he signed most of them with his son's name, Yokouchi Kiyoharu. This was done deliberately so that Kiyoharu could continue reprinting the blocks after his father's death.
Yokouchi originally made 100 prints of each design, perhaps planning to make more prints after World War II. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. During World War II, Yokouchi's house in Yokohama and all of his printing blocks were destroyed. As a result, his prints are extremely rare today. The exquisite craftsmanship of Yokouchi's woodblock prints ensures they will be sought after by collectors for many years to come.
