E.H. Insho zu
- Gallery: Room 94
- Culture: Showa Era
- Made in: Japan
- Date: 1946
- Object type: print
- Materials: paper
- Museum number: 1994,1217,0.8
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you is E.H. Insho zu, a striking color woodblock print created in 1946 during Japan’s Showa Era. The work presents an abstracted face—only the right eye and nose are shown, inviting viewers to focus intensely on a single, mysterious fragment of a person.
This piece was crafted using traditional woodblock techniques, with bold colors carefully layered onto paper. The print is signed, dated, and inscribed at the top left in German, expressing gratitude for Hacker’s "intimate friendship." The artist, Onchi Koshiro, also left his mark with two stamps, one containing the symbol of his personal studio.
Though short in acquaintance, Onchi's portrait of the young Ernst Hacker reflects a deep artistic sensitivity. The work was exhibited in Tokyo in late spring 1946, just after the end of World War Two. Today, it serves as a quiet but powerful reminder of a fleeting but meaningful friendship.
See it in person
E.H. Insho zu is on display in Room 94 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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