Hashimoto Gahō

Hashimoto Gahō (born August 21, 1835, Edo [now Tokyo], Japan—died January 13, 1908, Tokyo) was a Japanese painter who helped revive Japanese-style painting in the Meiji era.

The son of a painter, Hashimoto studied first with his father and later with Kanō Shōsen’in Tadanobu. He so excelled in his work that he became a studio director and at age 22 was placed in charge of his master’s school. Because of the social upheaval of the Meiji Restoration, however, he experienced difficult times and even had to resort to painting decoration on paper fans for export to China.

During the 1880s, when there arose a revival of interest in Japanese arts, he became famous by twice winning a prize at government-sponsored picture exhibitions, and he went on to play a leading role in reviving Japanese-style painting. On the establishment of the Tokyo Fine Arts School in 1889, he became a professor, and among his students were such future masters of Japanese painting as Yokoyama Taikan and Kawai Gyokudō. In 1890 he was appointed court artist, and in 1898, with Okakura Kakuzō, he founded the Japan Academy of Fine Arts.

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Hashimoto reformed the old rules of Japanese painting by adopting the principles of perspective and shading from Western paintings. His representative works include “Dragon and Tiger” and “Deep Ravine.”