Asian

The art of Tomikichiro Tokuriki is today seen as an important bridge between the two great movements of Japanese art in the early twentieth century; shin hanga and sosaku hanga. Like the classic shin hanga masters of the day, Tokuriki designed many woodcuts of landscapes and city views in the traditional manner. Yet he actively promoted sosaku-hanga (creative prints) in Kyoto, which emphasized the artist's participation over the entire process of printmaking and the exploration of more modern styles and trends. As one can see in a work of art such as Kyoto Rooftops, Tokuriki combined these often opposing elements to create a most vital form of imagery. The scene, with its wide expanse of form, colour and light and shade, is worthy of the great landscape art of classic Japanese masters. Notice, however, how the interlocking buildings in the foreground create solid geometric shapes and how the artist has carefully rendered many textures. This then is also a great woodcut in the sosaku-hanga style.   Tomikichiro Tokuriki studied painting techniques at the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts and finished his education at the Kyoto Art College in 1923. Beginning his career as a painter he produced his first original woodcuts in 1929. During the following years, Tokuriki devoted himself almost exclusively to the art of the woodcut. By 1935, his art was included in most major exhibitions, both at home and abroad.   Unlike most of his contemporaries, Tomikichiro Tokuriki not only designed his woodcuts but also carved the blocks and printed many of his impressions. At the end of World War II (1945), he also founded the Matsukyu Publishing Company where he published and distributed his own art as well as the woodcuts of other prominent Kyoto artists, such as, Shiko Munakata.

Hiroshi Yoshida (吉田 博, Yoshida Hiroshi?) (1876-1950) was a 20th century Japanese painter and woodblock print maker. He is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the shin hanga style, and is known especially for his excellent landscape prints. Yoshida travelled widely, and was particularly known for his images of non-Japanese subjects done in traditional Japanese woodblock style, including the Taj Mahal, the Swiss Alps, the Grand Canyon, and other National Parks in the USA.

Hiroshi Yoshida [ne: Hiroshi Ueda] was born in the city of Kurume, in Kyushu, on September 19, 1876[1]. He showed an early aptitude for art fostered by his adoptive father, a teacher of painting in the public schools. At age 19 he was sent to Kyoto to study under Tamura Skoryu, a well known teacher of western style painting. He then studied under Koyama Shotaro, in Tokyo, for another three years.

In 1899, Yoshida had his first American exhibition at Detroit Museum of Art (now Detroit Institute of Art). He then traveled to Boston, Washington, D.C., Providence and Europe. In 1920, Yoshida presented his first woodcut at the Watanabe Print Workshop, organized by Watanabe Shozaburo (1885-1962), publisher and advocate of the shin hanga movement. However, Yoshida’s collaboration with Watanabe was short partly due to the Great Kanto earthquake on September 1, 1923.

In 1925, he hired a group of professional carvers and printers, and established his own studio. Prints were made under the his close supervision. Yoshida combined the ukiyo-e collaborative system with the sosaku hanga principle of “artist’s prints”, and formed the third school, separating himself from the shin hanga and sosaku hanga movement.

Hiroshi Yoshida was trained in the Western oil painting tradition, which was adopted in Japan during Meiji modernization. Yoshida often used same blocks and varied the color to suggest different mood. The best example of such is Sailing Boats in 1921. Yoshida’s extensive travel and acquaintance with Americans influenced his art considerably. In 1931, a series of prints depicting scenes from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Singapore were published. Six of these were views of the Taj Mahal in different moods and colors.

The artistic lineage of the Yoshida family of eight artists: Kasaburo Yoshida (1861-1894) whose wife Rui Yoshida was not an artist, Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) whose wife Fujio Yoshida (1887-1987) was an artist, Toshi Yoshida (1911-1995) whose wife Kiso Yoshida (1919-2005) was an artist, Hodaka Yoshida (1926-1995), whose wife Chizuko Yoshida (1924- ) and daughter Ayomi Yoshida (1958- ) are artists (four men and four women spanning four generations) — provides an interesting perspective in looking at Japanese history and art development in the turbulent 20th Century. Although they inherit the same tradition, the Yoshida family artists work in different styles with different sensibilities.