May is a woodblock print by Hodaka Yoshida (1926-1995), documented through the [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e).org image archive that aggregates dealer, auction, and collector records for Japanese prints of the modern era. As a month-titled work it sits within a recurring tradition in Japanese printmaking in which artists meditate on the temperament of a specific calendar month - a tradition Hodaka inherited from older generations but transformed through the [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) ethos of personal carving and printing. Where pre-modern and [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) calendar prints typically used seasonal flora, weather, or genre scenes to evoke a month, Hodaka was more likely to abstract the idea of May into rhythm, color saturation, and the texture of the woodblock surface itself, in keeping with the creative-print movement's belief that the artist's hand should be visible in every step from drawing to final pull. As the son of Hiroshi Yoshida and the younger brother of Toshi Yoshida, Hodaka was uniquely positioned to participate in postwar Japanese printmaking with both a household name and a self-consciously modern idiom. He helped establish the second generation of the Yoshida family as a distinct force in the postwar art world, contributing to print associations and international exhibitions that carried Japanese woodblock printing forward into the late twentieth century. May is a representative example of how Hodaka inhabited inherited subject categories while overhauling the technique and look of the resulting work, and the ukiyo-e.org record preserves the image as it has been transmitted through the international collector market that has long supported the Yoshida family's reputation.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
May was created by Hodaka Yoshida (吉田穂高).
