Yoshida's North American subjects — Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Niagara Falls, Canadian Rockies — carry a 20–30% premium over comparable Japanese landscapes, with particularly strong demand from American institutional and private buyers. These prints represent a unique Japanese artistic perspective on Western natural monuments, and their rarity relative to Yoshida's Japan-focused output drives collector interest.
Moraine Lake, cradled in the Valley of the Ten Peaks in the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, provided Yoshida with one of his most spectacular compositions during his 1925 North American travels. The lake's extraordinary turquoise-blue color — produced by glacial rock flour suspended in the meltwater — and the dramatic backdrop of the Wenkchemna Peaks towering above the far shore created a landscape of a scale and palette unlike anything in Japan. Yoshida's oil-painting experience in the American and Canadian West had prepared him for this kind of monumental grandeur, and his woodblock translation of the lake scene preserves both its geological drama and the crystalline quality of the high-altitude light. The print is one of his most celebrated North American works.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Moraine Lake was created by Hiroshi Yoshida (吉田博) in 1925.
Moraine Lake uses Bokashi, Nishiki-e, and Moku-hanga, on color woodblock print.
Moraine Lake was published by Yoshida Studio (1925).
Moraine Lake depicts landscapes and rivers & lakes.
Moraine Lake measures 27.6 × 39.6 cm (Oban format).
