Afternoon, from the series "Sailboat Boats"

From Yoshida's Sailboat series, this 1926 afternoon view across a calm Japanese waterway — most likely the Seto Inland Sea — captures traditional wooden sailing vessels under full sail in the bright mid-day light. The afternoon compositions in this series tend toward stronger contrasts than the foggy or evening counterparts: the sails glow white against a deep blue sky, and the water's surface reflects the play of wind and sun. Yoshida had depicted sailboats in his early oil paintings, and bringing that subject into the woodblock medium allowed him to apply the atmospheric sensitivity he had cultivated over decades to a scene with intimate personal history.