Koko

Date:: 1939
Medium:: Color woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Dimensions:: 40.6 × 26.9 cm
Publisher:: Yoshida Studio
Source:: Art Institute of Chicago

Typical Price

From Yoshida's later career (1935–1950), these prints show his technical mastery at full maturity. Later-decade prints slightly trail peak-period 1920s works at auction, but jizuri impressions of desirable subjects still command strong prices. Standard jizuri Japanese landscapes follow the dealer benchmark of approximately $2,149; Sacred Bridge, Nikko (1937) sold for $800 at Schmidt's Antiques for a pencil-signed example.

Jizuri (artist-supervised) seal: $1,200–$3,500
Studio edition (no jizuri): $600–$1,800
Posthumous/family workshop reprint: $250–$700

Description

Koko — a Japanese word for "here" or, in certain compounds, suggesting a secluded or sheltered place — may refer to a specific toponym or a quality of landscape: a particular cove, inlet, or interior valley that Yoshida encountered during his travels through Japan or Asia in 1939. The print's composition likely emphasizes enclosure and intimacy, qualities that the word evokes, perhaps showing a sheltered harbor, a mountain hollow, or a valley framed by hillsides that creates the sense of a world apart. Yoshida in 1939 was still traveling within Asia despite the intensifying Pacific conflict, and this print may reflect a moment of found quietude during an increasingly turbulent time.