Yoshida: Three Generations of Japanese Printmaking @ Dulwich Picture Gallery, London

Yoshida: Three Generations of Japanese Printmaking 

Dulwich Picture Gallery, London 

19 June – 3 November 2024 

Hiroshi Yoshida 

El Capitan, 1925 

Courtesy Fukuoka Art Museum

Hiroshi Yoshida 

Kumoi Cherry Trees, 1926. 

Courtesy Fukuoka Art Museum 

Dulwich Picture Gallery brings together artworks by the Yoshida family, a Japanese artistic dynasty including Yoshida Hiroshi, Fujio, Tōshi, Hodaka, Chizuko and Ayomi. The first of its kind in the UK – and Europe more widely – this exhibition shines a spotlight on three generations of woodblock print artists and trace the evolution of Japanese printmaking across two centuries.

Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950)

The exhibition opens with work by Yoshida Hiroshi, one of Japan’s greatest artists. A pioneer of the shin hanga movement, he travelled across the world and gained an international reputation for his woodblock prints of American and European landscapes. New research will provide an insight into Hiroshi’s time in London, including his visit to Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1900, and his signature in the Gallery’s visitor book, along with his diaries, will serve as an intimate starting point for the show. The exhibition will include over 20 works by Hiroshi, many of which will be on display in the UK for the first time, with highlights including El Capitan (1925), A Canal in Venice (1925) and Kumoi Cherry Trees (1926).

Fujio Yoshida 

Yellow Iris, 1954 

Private Collection 

Photograph by Mareo Suemasa.

Fujio Yoshida  (1887–1987)

Works by Yoshida Fujio, a renowned watercolourist, painter and printmaker, will be exhibited in the UK for the first time. Fujio was married to Hiroshi and travelled with him across the USA and Europe, exhibiting her delicate watercolours of Japan to acclaim. Upon returning home in 1907, she took part in the first exhibition organised by the Japanese Academy of Arts. A skilled printmaker, Fujio later became known for her iconic close-up designs of plants and flowers.

Toshi Yoshida 

Unknown (Michi no), 1968 

Private Collection 

Photograph by Mareo Suemasa

Tōshi Yoshida (1911–1995) and Hodaka Yoshida  (1926–1995) 

The exhibition also showcases prints by Hiroshi’s and Fujio’s sons, Tōshi and Hodaka, both of whom brought post-war abstraction to the Japanese printmaking process.

Early on in his career, Yoshida Tōshi followed in his father’s footsteps, depicting landscapes and cityscapes, but experimented with abstract prints after World War II. The exhibition includes some of his most accomplished works, including Night Tokyo: Supper Waggon (1938) and Camouflage (1985).

Hodaka Yoshida  

Profile of an Ancient Warrior, 1958 

Courtesy Fukuoka Art Museum 

Yoshida Hodaka was a leading printmaker in post-war Japan. In a break from his family’s established style, he expanded upon traditional printmaking and incorporated collage and photoetching into his practice. Like his father and brother, foreign travels influenced his choice of motifs, but he was also inspired by Pop Art, Surrealism and Abstraction. Works such as Profile of an Ancient Warrior (1958) and Nonsense Mythology (1969) demonstrate his unique style.

Chizuko Yoshida 

Tenryuji Garden, 1953 

Private Collection

Photograph by Mareo Suemasa.

Chizuko Yoshida (1924–2017)

Yoshida Chizuko, who married Hodaka, was a renowned artist and co-founder of the first group of female printmakers in Japan, the Women’s Print Association. Chizuko often depicted landscapes, nature, and traditional Japanese scenes but she also explored aspects of abstraction and repetition. Her works were said to have connected popular art movements such as Abstract Expressionism and traditional Japanese printmaking. Highlights include A View at the Western Suburb of the Metropolis/ Rainy Season (1995) and Jazz (1954).

Ayomi Yoshida (b. 1958)

The exhibition culminates with a new site-specific installation of cherry blossom by Yoshida Ayomi, Hodaka’s and Chizuko’s daughter. The youngest member of the Yoshida printmaking family, Ayomi’s practice combines traditional Japanese printmaking techniques with modern elements, often utilising organic materials, and she has been exhibited at major international institutions. Ayomi’s immersive installation, a new work created especially for Dulwich Picture Gallery, explores the recurring theme of seasonality in Japanese art and is inspired by the Cherry trees in Dulwich Village, originally taken from the iconic site of Yoshino in Japan, famous for its cherry blossom.

Yoshida: Three Generations of Japanese Printmaking feature loans from international and private collections. The majority of works by Yoshida Hiroshi will be on loan from the Fukuoka Art Museum in Japan and are travelling to the UK for the first time. The exhibition is curated by Dr Monika Hinkel with support from Helen Hillyard, Curator at Dulwich Picture Gallery. It will be accompanied by a full colour publication featuring new research by Dr Monika Hinkel.

Jennifer Scott, Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery, said:

“I get goosebumps thinking about Yoshida Hiroshi’s visit to Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1900. We (metaphorically) welcome him back with this landmark exhibition which introduces UK audiences to his exquisite work and to his legacy - an exceptional family of printmakers.”

Dr Monika Hinkel, Curator of the exhibition, said:

“It is exciting to be able to exhibit so many iconic works of the renowned Yoshida family of printmakers to showcase the fascinating creative development of such outstanding artists over three generations.”

Ayomi Yoshida  said:

“When I found my grandfather’s signature in the Dulwich Picture Gallery guest book, my heart skipped a beat. What an exciting and intriguing journey it must have been for Hiroshi, then an unknown painter and only 23, traveling from a country so far away. How proud he would be of this family exhibit of six, welcomed 120 years later at this wonderful museum.”

DULWICH PICTURE GALLERY 

Gallery Road, London SE21 7AD 

www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

Early Modern Japanese Prints, Toledo Museum of Art - Fresh Impressions

Fresh Impressions: Early Modern Japanese Prints
Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio
Through January 1, 2014

Fresh Impressions: Early Modern Japanese Prints

Toledo Museum of Art

In 1930 the Toledo Museum of Art played a critical role in popularizing modern Japanese woodblock prints in North America by organizing the largest exhibition ever devoted to the movement and producing an authoritative catalog to accompany it on its nationwide tour of 10 museums. Installed in four special exhibition galleries with works that spanned a decade, the landmark 1930 show presented 343 prints by 10 leading artists of the shin hanga (“new prints”) movement. 

Fresh Impressions: Early Modern Japanese Prints reassembles and revisits that historic exhibition. The Museum has also produced a major catalog in conjunction with the show that for the first time reproduces all 343 prints together in full color. The exhibition is organized by the Museum’s chief curator and curator of Asian art, Carolyn Putney. 

Hashiguchi Goyo (Japanese, 1880–1921)

Woman Combing Her Hair (Kami sukeru onna), March 1920. 

Color woodblock print. 

Toledo Museum of Art. Museum Purchase, 1930.109 

“The Toledo Museum of Art’s momentous 1930 exhibition is considered a touchstone of the early-twentieth-century Japanese shin hanga movement, which revived the traditional woodblock print for the modern era,” said Museum Director Brian Kennedy. “I am delighted that a new generation of Museum visitors can experience this rare opportunity to view these incredibly vibrant and compelling images for themselves.” 

Natori Shunsen (Japanese, 1886–1960) 

Actor Jitsukawa Yenjaku as Danshichi, 1926. 

Color woodblock print. 

Toledo Museum of Art. Gift of Hubert D. Bennett, 1939.225

The shin hanga movement began in Japan around 1915 and is noted for combining traditional Japanese woodblock technique with an interest in Western aesthetics and a vivid, modern color sensibility. The new exhibition underlines the importance of the early 20th-century resurgence of Japanese woodblock printmaking, which has been described as “a period of Renaissance” in the field. The prints encompass a variety of subject matter, including traditional landscapes, seascapes, rivers and lakes, beautiful women (bijinga), actors (yakusha-e), the natural world and wildlife, cities and towns and temples, as well as Western-inspired still life and genre scenes. 

Kawase Hasui (Japanese, 1883–1957) 

Zojoji in Snow (Shiba Zojoji), 1925. 

Color woodblock print. 

Toledo Museum of Art. Gift of Hubert D. Bennett, 1939.165

The 10 artists in the exhibition are Hashiguchi Goyō (1880–1921), Itō Shinsui (1898–1972), Kawase Hasui (1883–1957), Miki Suizan (1887–1957), Natori Shunsen (1886–1960), Oda Kazuma (1882–1956), Ohara Shōson, also known as Ohara Kōson (1877–1945), Yamamura Toyonari, also known as Yamamura Kōka (1885–1942), Hiroshi Yoshida (1876–1950) and Yoshikawa Kanpō (1894–1979). 

All but five of the 343 prints are now in the Museum’s collection. Most of these were purchased around the time of the original show and donated to the Museum in 1939 by local businessman and print collector Hubert D. Bennett. (The Museum is borrowing the additional five prints.) The Toledo Museum of Art’s collection of shin hanga is considered to be one of the finest in any museum in the country. The prints have only rarely been out of storage since the 1930s and as a result are in pristine condition. 

In addition to the 343 woodblock prints, the exhibition will present companion objects depicted in the prints—such as kimonos, netsuke and samurai swords and armor—not included in the original 1930 show. A companion exhibition, Ebb and Flow: Cross-Cultural Prints, in the Works on Paper Gallery, covers the period from the 1930s to the present and explores the global influence of these modern Japanese printmakers. 

Hiroshi Yoshida (Japanese, 1876-1950), 

Sailing Boats, Afternoon (Hansen, Gogo), from the Inland Sea Series (Seto-Naikai Shu), 1926. 

Color woodblock print. 

Toledo Museum of Art. Gift of Hubert D. Bennett, 1939.335

Shin hanga was introduced to the American public in the 1920s through several smaller exhibitions organized to benefit artists affected by the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923. But it was not until the Toledo Museum of Art’s 1930 show, A Special Exhibition of Modern Japanese Prints—co-organized by Toledo curators J. Arthur MacLean (1879–1964) and Dorothy L. Blair (1890–1989), in collaboration with shin hanga artist Hiroshi Yoshida—that the movement’s scope was fully grasped and examined. The original catalog, which was fully illustrated in black-and-white and featured artist biographies, signatures and seals, became an invaluable resource on the work of modern Japanese printmakers for scholars and enthusiasts; it was reprinted and sold out twice.

Ohara Shoson (Japanese, 1878–1945) 

Camelia and Rice Birds (Tsubaki ni Shiro Buncho), 1929. 

Color woodblock print.

Toledo Museum of Art. Gift of Hubert D. Bennett, 1939.271

Blair, the subject of Putney’s essay in the new catalog, was a pioneering authority on Asian art and culture in a field dominated by men. In 1927 she spent a year studying in Japan at Kyoto Imperial University—the first woman and first foreigner accorded that privileged status. She became assistant curator at the Toledo Museum of Art in 1928, after stints at several other noted museums, including the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. 

The 352-page catalog accompanying Fresh Impressions, with essays by Putney, scholars Kendall H. Brown and Koyama Shukō and artist Paul Binnie, was published with the assistance of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation. 

TOLEDO MUSEUM OF ART 

2445 Monroe Street at Scottwood Avenue, Toledo, Ohio 43620
www.toledomuseum.org