NAGASE Yoshiro was a singular printmaker who, from the Taisho through the Showa periods, introduced a sensual current of “eroticism” and “Symbolism” into the Japanese print world. Together with artists such as Hasegawa Kiyoshi, he formed a group dedicated to pursuing an original mode of Japanese print expression, transforming traditional woodblock printing into a vehicle for the “liberation of the spirit.”
Emblematic of Nagase’s oeuvre are female figures rendered in soft, flowing curves, set against backgrounds suffused with a decadent and poetic atmosphere. His carving tools did more than simply reproduce appearances; through the coarse grain of the woodblock and the subtle bleeding of ink, he gave form to the passions and solitude hidden within the human psyche. The women he depicted, in particular, broke away from the formalized beauty of contemporary Nihonga and ukiyo-e, embodying instead a more visceral presence—one closer to the corporeal beauty and emotional instability found in modern Western art. While his work shares a lyrical sensibility with that of Takehisa Yumeji, it delves more deeply into the darker recesses of the spirit and a heightened sense of sensuality.
Emblematic of Nagase’s oeuvre are female figures rendered in soft, flowing curves, set against backgrounds suffused with a decadent and poetic atmosphere. His carving tools did more than simply reproduce appearances; through the coarse grain of the woodblock and the subtle bleeding of ink, he gave form to the passions and solitude hidden within the human psyche. The women he depicted, in particular, broke away from the formalized beauty of contemporary Nihonga and ukiyo-e, embodying instead a more visceral presence—one closer to the corporeal beauty and emotional instability found in modern Western art. While his work shares a lyrical sensibility with that of Takehisa Yumeji, it delves more deeply into the darker recesses of the spirit and a heightened sense of sensuality.
