Sumida River Mist, from the series Twelve Scenes of Tokyo (Tokyo jūnidai)
- Series:
- Twelve Scenes of Tokyo
- Date:
- Taishō period, dated 1926
- Medium:
- Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Sumida River Mist (1926), from the series Twelve Scenes of Tokyo (Tōkyō jūnidai), in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, is among Hiroshi Yoshida's most atmospheric prints of the rebuilding capital. Issued only three years after the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923 destroyed Yoshida's Tokyo studio, the series documents a city in transition: ancient waterways, working barges, and modern bridges seen through Yoshida's restrained, near-monochrome palette. In this view of the Sumida, the river's surface dissolves into a damp gray haze, with masts and silhouetted figures emerging only as the eye adjusts. The Twelve Scenes are a defining statement of Yoshida's mature [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) style. Trained in Western oil painting before he committed fully to woodblock, Yoshida applied Western tonal modeling to an inherently Japanese subject, using the Yoshida studio's deep block-count technique to lay down layer after layer of nearly identical gray. Unlike most shin-hanga artists, Yoshida did not work under a publisher; he employed his own carvers and printers, allowing him absolute control over the kind of subtle gradation a mist scene demands. The series is sometimes contrasted with Kawase Hasui's roughly contemporary Tokyo prints—where Hasui worked with publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō and emphasized warm picturesque effects, Yoshida pursued the cooler, near-photographic atmospheric realism on view here. Sumida River Mist is widely cited as evidence of how completely Yoshida had absorbed plein-air observation into the woodblock medium.
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.
Sumida River Mist, from the series Twelve Scenes of Tokyo (Tokyo jūnidai) was created by Hiroshi Yoshida (吉田博) in Taishō period, dated 1926.
Yes — Sumida River Mist, from the series Twelve Scenes of Tokyo (Tokyo jūnidai) is part of the Twelve Scenes of Tokyo series by Hiroshi Yoshida.
Sumida River Mist, from the series Twelve Scenes of Tokyo (Tokyo jūnidai) depicts landscapes and edo & tokyo.
