Additional information
by Cristina Berna (Author), Eric Thomsen (Author)
Takahashi Shōtei (高橋松亭), born Hiroaki (1871 - 11 February 1945) was a 20th-century Japanese woodblock artist in the shinsaku-hanga and later shin-hanga art movements.
When he was 16 years old, he started a job with the Imperial Household Department of Foreign Affairs, where he copied the designs of foreign ceremonial objects.
In 1907, as a successful artist, he was recruited by Watanabe Shōzaburō to contribute shinsaku-hanga (souvenir prints) in Japan. Watanabe helped to fulfill the Western demand for newly-styled ukiyo-e woodblock prints which would be similar to familiar historical masters of that genre, especially Hiroshige.
In the 1930s, while still working for Watanabe, he also designed some oban (and larger) prints for the publisher Fusui Gabo.
Shotei died of pneumonia on February 11, 1945.
