Two Lanterns

Date:: 1963
Medium:: Woodblock print
Format:: Oban
Publisher:: Yoshida Studio

Source:

Typical Price

The edition type is the primary value driver for Yoshida prints. The jizuri seal — indicating the artist personally supervised every aspect of printing — typically commands 2–3× the price of posthumous reprints. Standard jizuri prints of Japanese landscapes cluster around $2,149 at dealer level (1stDibs benchmark). PBS Antiques Roadshow valued a pair of lifetime prints at $2,500 total (~$1,250 each) for non-jizuri examples.

Jizuri (artist-supervised) seal: $1,500–$4,000
Studio edition (no jizuri): $700–$2,000
Posthumous/family workshop reprint: $300–$800

Description

Two Lanterns, from 1963, is among Yoshida's final works — a late-career meditation on the stone lanterns that mark sacred precincts throughout Japan. Stone lanterns had appeared throughout his career as compositional elements, but here they become the primary subject, their simple forms studied in the quality of light that characterizes his late style. The paired lanterns create a subtle formal dialogue — similar but not identical, their relationship suggesting the paired elements that recur throughout Japanese aesthetic tradition. The print carries the quiet authority of a master artist in full possession of his medium.