Lantern Maker (Chôchinya), Taishô period, dated 1926

Chōchinya (提灯屋) depicts the interior of a traditional Japanese paper lantern workshop, where craftsmen carefully paint and assemble chōchin by hand. Yoshida renders the scene with warm, intimate lighting — the glow of finished lanterns illuminating the workers bent over their tasks, brushes poised against translucent paper stretched over bamboo frames.

This 1926 print is one of Yoshida's genre studies of traditional Japanese trades, a subject he returned to periodically between his more famous landscape travels. Unlike his sweeping mountain panoramas, Chōchinya draws the viewer into a quiet, enclosed space, emphasizing the concentration and skill of the artisans. The composition balances geometric repetition — rows of cylindrical lanterns in various stages of completion — against the organic poses of the human figures.

Yoshida self-published this design through his own studio, maintaining personal oversight of the carving and printing process. The print demonstrates his characteristic control of color gradation ([bokashi](/glossary/bokashi)), here used to convey the soft diffusion of lamplight rather than atmospheric distance. Harvard Art Museums holds an impression from the Taishō-period edition.