Rapids

Rapids belongs to Yoshida's substantial body of moving-water subjects, which range from coastal surf in the Inland Sea series to mountain streams encountered on his alpine sketching trips. Depictions of rapids in mokuhanga depend on the carver's ability to translate watercolour or oil-sketch foam into discrete carved lines and reserved areas of unprinted washi, with bokashi gradients suggesting the depth and turbulence of the underlying current. Yoshida, who painted in oil and watercolour before turning seriously to print in 1925, brought a Western interest in observed light reflection on broken water surfaces to a tradition more accustomed to stylised wave conventions inherited from Hokusai. The result in such prints is typically a textured mid-tone of overprinted blues and greys, with sharper white highlights produced by leaving the paper exposed. The print would have been issued under the jizuri seal indicating supervised printing in Yoshida's own studio rather than a publisher's house.