![]() The image falls within the centuries-old tradition of depicting women attending to their makeup and hair. In 1936 Nakagawa produced a print titled Kamiyui (Dressing the hair: 髪結). ![]() The print bears the seal, carved in the block, for the first character "I" in the artist's given name, Isaku ( 伊作). Yet the result is a charming view of youth and innocence before the clouds of war would darken life in Japan. The linework is relatively unmodulated and there is no attempt at subtlety. ![]() Nakagawa's "Out for a stroll" or Shôjo (Young ladies: 少女) presents two figures drawn in a primitive, almost cartoon-like manner. The print shown above is one of three that Nakagawa contributed to a series of twelve designs in a collaborative effort with Asada Benji (麻田辨自 1899-1984), Asano Takeji (浅野竹二 1900-1999), and Tokuriki Tomikichirô. Nakagawa Isaku: Out for a stroll or Shôjo (Young ladies: 少女) Around 1932, Nakagawa was set to collaborate on a print series titled Shin Kyoto gojikkei hanga (Prints of Fifty Views of New Kyoto: 新京都五十景版画), but the series was incomplete as published by Nakajima Jûtarô of the Sôsaku Hanga Club and only a few images are known. Earlier, in the mid-1920s, these same four artists had formed the so-called Yonin Sôsaku Hanga Hanpukai (Four-Men Creative Print Distribution Club: 四人創作版画頒布会) in Kyoto. He contributed to dôjin zasshi (coterie art magazines: 同人雑誌) such as Han geijutsu ("Print Art": 版芸術) and joined three other artists (Asada Benji, Asano Takeji, and Tokuriki Tomikichirô) in a twelve-print set issued sometime in the early 1930s (for which the artists designed three prints each) see below. Nakagawa was involved in the founding of the Kyoto Sôsaku-hanga Kyôkai (Kyoto Creative Print Society: 京都創作版画協会) in 1929, along with various other artists, and he was a member of Nihon Hanga Kyôkai (Japan Print Association, founded in 1931) from 1932. ![]() The print is "signed" with a blind-printed (embossed) stamp reading Isaku ( 伊作) at the upper right in the background. ![]() This liberated type of young Japanese woman who affected Western-style dress and hairstyles, as well as a more openly sexual manner, was seen as a threat to the traditional woman's role that valued reticence, obedience, devotion, self-sacrifice, and public decorum. The image captures the lingering spirit of the so-called "jazz age" in Japan, when modan garu ("modern girls: モダンガル) or " moga" adopted attitudes, behaviors, and fashions from the West in the 1920s-1930s. Aiming from above, she will strike the cue ball on its side, which will propel it around the closest red ball and curve it into the second. One of Nakagawa's most popular prints is his Guran masse ("Grand massé": グランマッセ), a view of a young woman attempting a trick shot in billiards. Nakagawa Isaku: Guran masse ("Grand massé": グランマッセ) ![]()
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