Nagaoka Contemporary Art Museum

Okiie Hashimoto (橋本興家, IPA: [o.ki:.e], 1899 – 1993) was a Japanese artist and educator, best known as a member of the second wave of the sōsaku hanga (Creative Prints) movement. Born on October 4, 1899, in Tottori Prefecture, Hashimoto graduated from the Tokyo University of Fine Arts in 1924 and worked as an art teacher until 1955, when he began to pursue a career as an artist full-time. Hashimoto was originally a hobbyist in oil painting, but he attended a workshop organized by prominent sōsaku hanga artist Un’ichi Hiratsuka and began creating woodblock prints in his spare time in 1936. He and Hiratsuka remained close friends until the former’s death. Hashimoto became a member of the newly-formed First Thursday Society in 1939, a cooperative organization founded by renowned printmaker Koshiro Onchi and dedicated to the postwar revival of sōsaku hanga. Hashimoto first exhibited with the Japan Print Association in 1937 and continued to practice and exhibit at a number of national and international exhibitions throughout the remainder of his life, becoming president of the Japan Print Association in 1974.

Known for his simplified and decorative style and use of a restrained color palette, Hashimoto’s oeuvre spanned a variety of subjects throughout his career, though his preferred subjects were traditional Japanese architecture, gardens, and, in later years, floral and figural imagery. He died at the age of 93 on August 18, 1993.