• Mood: pleased
• Music: The Drew Carey Show “Miss Right”

Artistic Advent: New Year's Day in Tokyo

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope your 2005 is truly wonderful.

Helen Hyde (1868–1919)
New Year's Day in Tokyo, 1914
color woodcut on paper

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

Helen Hyde traveled to Japan in 1899 to study brush painting and etching, and became fascinated with color woodblock printing and with premodern Japanese society. She lived in Japan for fifteen years, but as Japanese society became more Westernized, she grew disenchanted with it and returned to the United States.