Soshu (Suzhou)

Suzhou — the ancient canal city west of Shanghai known since the Tang dynasty as the "Venice of the East" for its network of waterways, classical gardens, and silk industry — appears in this undated print (Soshu being the Japanese reading of the Chinese characters for Suzhou) as a city defined by water. Yoshida's treatment likely focuses on the canal system that threads through the old city, with its stone bridges, whitewashed walls, and wooden boats, the combination of architecture and water providing compositional material analogous to the Venice prints he made during his European travels. The parallel between Suzhou and Venice was not lost on Yoshida, who had depicted both cities and could bring a rare comparative perspective to each.