was a Japanese cartographer and artist, known by his

bird's-eye view A bird's-eye view is an elevated view of an object or location from a very steep viewing angle, creating a perspective (graphical), perspective as if the observer were a bird in flight looking downward. Bird's-eye views can be an aerial photog ...

maps of cities and towns. Known as the "

Hiroshige or , born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format landscape series '' The Fifty-three Stations ...

of the Taisho Era," Yoshida created over 3,000 maps in his lifetime.

Biography

Yoshida was born in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

in 1884 as Hatsusaburo Izumi. His father died when he was a year old, so he adopted his mother's surname. At age 10, Yoshida became a textile designer apprentice, dyeing textiles for

kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn Garment collars in hanfu#Youren (right lapel), left side wrapped over ri ...

. When he turned 25, he studied foreign painting with Masaro Kagiki, but turned to commercial art at Kagiki's recommendation. In 1914, his first bird's-eye view "Keihan Train Guide" was praised by

Emperor Showa , posthumously honored as , was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. He remains Japan's longest-reigning emperor as well as one of the world's longest-rei ...

(then Crown Prince), who was aboard the Keihan Train on a school trip. The popularity of Hatsushiro's birds-eye view maps increased due to the tourism boom in Japan from Taisho to Showa era. Yoshida established the , which was later renamed . Yoshida visited the places which he depicted on maps, talking to people and studying popular attractions. In 1921, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the introduction of rail transport in Japan, the

Ministry of Railways A Ministry of Railways is a Cabinet department that exists or has existed in many Commonwealth states as well as others. It generally occurs in countries where railroad transportation is a particularly important part of the national infrastructure ...

decided to publish "Railway Travel Information" guides with maps illustrated by Yoshida. He also made posters for the International Tourism Bureau's "Beautiful Japan" campaign in the 1930s. During that decade Yoshida was flooded with requests to create a bird's-eye maps from the whole country (including Manchuria and Taiwan). He hired disciples to help with his works, while moving his base to Inuyama City and

Hachinohe is a city located in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 213,453 in 110,121 households, and a population density of . As of October 2020, Hachinohe is Aomori Prefecture's second largest city by population. The c ...

City (

Tanesashi Coast The is section of the coastline on the Pacific Ocean, located in the southern portion of the city of Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. It is extends for from the island of Kabushima south towards the city ...

). He also received requests from many friends, like royalty such as

Prince Takamatsu was the third son of Emperor Taishō (Yoshihito) and Empress Teimei (Sadako) and a younger brother of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito). He became heir to the Takamatsu-no-miya (formerly Arisugawa-no-miya), one of the four ''shinnōke'' or branches ...

and soldiers such as

Iwane Matsui was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, the commander of the expeditionary force sent to China in 1937, and convicted war criminal executed by the Allies for his involvement in the Nanjing Massacre. Born in Nagoya, Matsui chose a military ...

. However, during World War II, Yoshida's map production slowed down; the military judged those maps would be inconvenient in that time, as they would potentially reveal military secrets, such as secret harbors, to the enemy. Yoshida's first major work following the war was a bird's-eye view of the aftermath of the Hiroshima atomic bombing. Yoshida died in 1955. In 1999, a retrospective exhibition about his maps was held at the Sakai City Museum.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yoshida, Hatsusaburo 1884 births 1955 deaths Japanese cartographers Japanese illustrators People from Kyoto Scientists from Kyoto