was a Japanese

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...

artist associated with the '' sōsaku-hanga'' movement, and was the son of ''

shin-hanga was an art movement in early 20th-century Japan, during the Taishō and Shōwa periods, that revitalized the traditional '' ukiyo-e'' art rooted in the Edo and Meiji periods (17th–19th century). It maintained the traditional ''ukiyo-e' ...

'' artist Hiroshi Yoshida.

Childhood

One of Yoshida's legs was paralysed during his early childhood. Not being able to attend school, he enjoyed watching animals and his father's

workshop. Encouraged by his grandmother Rui Yoshida, Tōshi often sketched animals.

Early artistic development

Yoshida's artistic career was a long struggle between fidelity to his father's legacy and freedom from it. In 1926, Tōshi chose animals as his primary subjects to distinguish himself from his father, who was a

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

printmaker. However, in the 1930s, Tōshi started making landscape

paintings Painting is a visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or " support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush. Other implements, ...

and prints similar to his father's works. Father and son traveled together and even painted side by side. From 1930 to 1931, Hiroshi and Tōshi traveled to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

and

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

. In 1940 he married Kiso Yoshida (née Katsura) and they soon had five sons.

Wartime

Yoshida's adult career began under adverse circumstances. Yoshida was still an apprentice in the Yoshida family system. He had little, if any, artistic autonomy from his father. 1936 was the beginning of military

dictatorship A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no Limited government, limitations. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, ...

, under which art was under

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...

. In 1943, Yoshida produced oil paintings that depict factory workers and civilians engaging in war production. After the war, because of economic hardship, Yoshida published seventeen landscape works in 1951 for American personnel and their wives.

Postwar turn to abstract expressionism

The death of his father in 1950 marked Tōshi's total break from his past and from naturalism. In 1952, Yoshida began a series of abstract

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

s, influenced by his brother, Hodaka Yoshida. In 1953, Tōshi traveled to the United States, Mexico, London, and the

Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

. He made presentations in thirty museums and galleries in eighteen states. From 1954 to 1973, Yoshida made three hundred nonobjective prints.

Animal prints and Africa

In 1971, Yoshida returned to his innate affinity for animals and focused on birds and animals again. His ''Humming Bird and Fuchsia'' in 1971 was a prelude to the African works that he began the following year. From 1971 to 1994, until the last years of his life, Tōshi worked almost exclusively on animal prints. Tōshi was also a children's book illustrator. He wrote his own short stories and made illustrations in the ''Animal Picture Book'' series.

References

*Allen, Laura W. ''A Japanese Legacy: Four Generations of Yoshida Family Artists''. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Chicago: Art Media Resources (2002). *''Japanese Print Making: a handbook of Traditional & Modern Techniques''. Preface by Oliver Statler. *Skibbe, Eugene M. ''Yoshida Toshi: Nature, Art and Peace''. Minnesota: Seascape Publications (1996). *Yoshida, Toshi & Rei Yuki. ''Japanese Printmaking, A Handbook of Traditional & Modern Techniques''. Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Tuttle Co. Inc. (1966).

External links

Toshi YoshidaToshi Yoshida: 12 worksToshi Yoshida Woodblock Prints GalleryToshi Yoshida Woodblock PrintsYoshida Toshi Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yoshida, Toshi Japanese printmakers 1911 births 1995 deaths Sosaku hanga artists