Yamanaka Lake (Yamanaka-ko)

Date:: Shōwa period, dated 1929
Medium:: Woodblock print; ink and color on paper with signature reading "Hiroshi Yoshida" and printed signature reading "Yoshida" with a seal of the artist
Format:: Oban
Dimensions:: 55.4 × 69 cm
Publisher:: Yoshida Studio
Source:: Harvard Art Museums

Typical Price

This 1920s print from the heart of Yoshida's jizuri period represents his mature shin-hanga technique. Standard jizuri prints of Japanese landscapes cluster around $2,149 (1stDibs dealer benchmark). The jizuri seal — indicating Yoshida personally supervised printing — is the single most important value driver, typically doubling the price over non-jizuri lifetime impressions.

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

Description

Yamanaka-ko is the easternmost of the Fuji Five Lakes, separated from the mountain's base by only a narrow band of forest, and offering some of the most immediate views of Fuji's southern face available from any of the lakes. Yoshida's 1929 print — signed by the artist and bearing his printed seal — captures the lake in the clear light of an autumn or winter day, the mountain's reflection visible in the calm water. The signature and seal, noted in the medium description, reflect Yoshida's practice of personally authenticating impressions he printed himself through his jizuri technique.