Lake Kawaguchi

Date:: 1926
Medium:: Woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Publisher:: Yoshida Studio
Source:: Honolulu Museum of Art

Typical Price

This 1920s print from the heart of Yoshida's jizuri period represents his mature shin-hanga technique. Standard jizuri prints of Japanese landscapes cluster around $2,149 (1stDibs dealer benchmark). The jizuri seal — indicating Yoshida personally supervised printing — is the single most important value driver, typically doubling the price over non-jizuri lifetime impressions.

Jizuri (artist-supervised) seal: $1,500–$4,000
Studio edition (no jizuri): $800–$2,000
Posthumous/family workshop reprint: $300–$800

Description

Lake Kawaguchi lies at the northwestern base of Mount Fuji, one of the Fuji Five Lakes that reflect the volcano's cone in calm weather. Yoshida visited the lake in 1926 and produced a print that centers not on Fuji itself but on the water's surface — the placid expanse of the lake, perhaps a boat or distant shoreline, the mountain present as context rather than subject. The composition demonstrates Yoshida's understanding that Fuji is most powerful when glimpsed across distance and water, its reflection doubling its presence.