YOSHIDA

COLLECTING JAPANESE PRINTS FEATURED SHIN HANGA ARTIST

Toshi Yoshida

1911 - 1995


 

Toshi Yoshida was a contemporary shin hanga artist born in 1911 in Tokyo, Japan. The eldest son of Hiroshi Yoshida, he grew up in his father's studio learning oil painting and woodblock printing techniques at the age of fourteen. In 1932, he attended a four-year course at Taiheiyo, a private school co-founded by his father and operated by the Taiheiyoga-kai art association. 

Upon completing his studies, Yoshida traveled extensively throughout India, Europe, North Africa, and the United States alongside Yoshida senior. After the Pacific War, he resumed his travels to the United States, Africa, Canada, and especially Mexico. Yoshida continued to operate out of the family studio until his father's death in 1950, after which time he assumed the position as head of the family. 

Two years later, Yoshida joined both the Nihon Hanga Kyokai and Graphic Arts Club, and for a brief period, produced nonobjective, abstract prints in large formatting. However, he quickly returned to shin hanga in the 1960s with realistic renditions of subjects in nature. In 1966, he co-published Japanese Printmaking: A Handbook of Traditional and Modern Techniques, and later in 1984, published an illustrated children's book on African wildlife. Yoshida's fascination with African zoology led to subsequent publications of children's books leading into the 1990s. 

After having honored his father's artistic legacy, served the Yoshida family, and inspired artists of the printmaking world, Yoshida Toshi passed away in 1995 at the age of eighty-four.