Opus No. 12

Opus No. 12, from 1953, belongs to Yoshida's abstract "Opus" series in which he deliberately adopted the musical terminology of composition to describe non-representational woodcut works, signaling his alignment with Western avant-garde practice. The Opus series represents his most systematic engagement with abstract art, each numbered work a formal experiment in the visual possibilities of the woodblock medium unconstrained by representational requirements. The 1953 date places this at the height of his abstract period, when he was exhibiting with Japanese avant-garde groups and seeking to contribute Japanese printmaking to the international conversation about abstract art.