“When you look at [a] print by Yoshitoshi… for a moment that era: that era which you couldn’t tell if it was Edo or Meiji, an era in which night and day seemed to have merged and become one...doesn’t it appear before your eyes so vivid in an instant?”- Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, “The Good Man of the Enlightenment,”1919 (trans. Chelsea Foxwell)

“Art is not something that can be grasped by the mind, it is understood by the heart. If one goes back to its origin, painting expresses the heart in color and form, and it must not be limited to the world of reflected forms captured by sight.” - Kōshirō Onchi on the process and philosophy of the sōsaku-hanga (“creative print”) movement.

Hiroshi Yoshida (吉田 博, Japan, 1876-1950) was a prolific Japanese printmaker who broke through the cultural barriers that separated the Eastern and Western worlds. He became one of the first established Asian artists to show extensively in the West and contribute to the artistic milieu of the 20th century. Hiroshi trained as a shin-hanga (“new print”) artist during his early years, learning Western-style techniques of rendering light, color, and atmospheric depth. He also abided by depicting traditional Japanese themes of landscapes (fukei-ga), famous places (meishō), beautiful women (bijin-ga), kabuki actors (yakusha-e), and birds-and-flowers (kachō-e). However, Hiroshi never imitated Occidental art or methods of creating it. Instead, the artist innovated his own unmatched creative and progressive direction that his remarkable and coveted prints showcase today. 

“Without [art], I wouldn’t feel quite alive, or I wouldn’t feel like I should be living without doing some work. You could say it’s a sense of responsibility. It’s the proof that I am alive.” Toko Shinoda, 2017

For collectors, Haku Maki's images are quickly identifiable when you see a beautiful piece of textured calligraphy, or an almost aboriginal looking linear story, but there are a broader set of themes which Haku Maki explored in his art work. The visual overview in this blog explores these themes and his inspirations.

Hiroshi Yoshida is one of the most well known of the shin-hanga style artists and his prints are in high demand from customers all around the globe. There are many outlets to buy a Hiroshi Yoshida woodblock ranging from your local gallery, to online auction sites like eBay. With the varying sources to buy a Hiroshi Yoshida print, and the volume of prints available, it's important to educate yourself on how to distinguish a valuable early edition print from the later impressions, reproductions, and posthumous versions of a print. There are a variety of features to look for in a Hiroshi Yoshida print, but what we will focus on here is the jizuri seal.