Hiroshi Yoshida's International Travel Prints
吉田博 海外旅行
Hiroshi Yoshida traveled internationally before he printed. His Indian and Himalayan series (1931–32), American and European series (1903 onward), and Chinese series document a working printmaker's eye on locations no other shin-hanga artist depicted at scale.
About This Collection
Yoshida's travel programme had the same basis as his alpine programme: he sketched on location and produced print designs only after extensive on-the-spot study. His first major international tour was to the United States in 1899, where he sold sufficient watercolours to fund years of subsequent travel. He visited India, Pakistan, and Nepal in 1930–31, producing the Taj Mahal series, Darjeeling and Kanchenjunga prints, and depictions of Benares and the Indian street that have no parallel in any other Japanese woodblock body of work.
The European tour had produced earlier watercolour and oil works, but the woodblock translations came in the 1920s — including a Swiss Alps series, the 'St. Paul's Cathedral' London print, and several Italian and Spanish views. Yoshida's 1936 Chinese tour, undertaken during the period of Japanese imperial expansion in Manchuria, produced the 'China and Mongolia' series. The work was politically complex (Yoshida received war-artist commissions during WWII), but the woodblock prints from these tours record both the artist's geographical curiosity and the technical extension of the shin-hanga method to subject matter the genre had never previously addressed.
This collection gathers Yoshida's international travel works from the Hanga catalogue: the Indian Himalayan series, the American and European views, and the Chinese tour prints. Browse to compare how a single technique — multi-block hand-printed mokuhanga — was extended to render the Taj Mahal, the Matterhorn, and the streets of Suzhou.
Prints in This Collection (60)
Chikugo River
Woodblock print
Sacred Bridge
Woodblock print
Soshu (Suzhou)
Woodblock print
Kanchenjunga
1931
Woodblock Print
Ikenohata
1937
Woodblock Print
Sail Boat
1923
Dry point
Grand Canyon
1925
Woodblock print
Jungfrau
1925
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Unknown title
1925
Woodblock print
Moraine Lake
1925
Color woodblock print
Niagara Falls
1925
Woodblock print
Catching Goldfish (Kingyo sukui), from the series Twelve Scenes of Tokyo (Tokyo jûnidai), Shôwa period, dated 1928
Shôwa period, 1926-1989
Woodblock print
Lake Kawaguchi
1926
Woodblock print
Daidomon
1937
Woodblock Print
Sailing Boats: Forenoon (Hansen, gozen), from the series "Seto Inland Sea (Seto Naikai shu)"
Hansen, gozen
1926
Color woodblock print
Sailing Boats: Fog (Hansen, kiri), from the series "Seto Inland Sea (Seto Naikai shu)"
Hansen, kiri
1926
Color woodblock print
Sailing Boats: Afternoon (Hansen, gogo), from the series "Seto Inland Sea (Seto Naikai shu)"
Hansen, gogo
1926
Color woodblock print
Willow and Stone Bridge
1926
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Tsurugizan, Morning
1926
Woodblock print
Evening after Rain
1926
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Glittering Sea
Woodblock print
Goshikihara, Japanese Alps, Shôwa period, dated 1926
Shôwa period, 1926-1989
Woodblock print
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
1926
Woodblock print
Way to the Kasuga Shrine
1938
Color woodblock print
Himeji Castle in the Morning (Later printing by Toshi Yoshida)
1926
Woodblock print
Sketch of a Tiger
1926
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Portrait of a Boy (Kodomo), Shôwa period, dated 1927
Shôwa period, 1926-1989
Woodblock print
Nigatsudö
1926
Woodblock print
Evening on the River, Chikugogawa - Hita
1927
Woodblock print
Girl
1927
Woodblock print
Snow in Kashiwabara
1927
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Winter in Taguchi (Later printing by Toshi Yoshida)
1927
Woodblock print
Child
1927
Color woodblock print
Portrait of a Boy
1927
Woodblock print
Bivouac: Kitadake and Ainodake
1928
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
From the Summit of Komagatake
1928
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Funatsu, from
1928
Woodblock print
Sunrise Rite
1928
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Musashino
1928
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
The Kengamine Summit
1928
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Kagurazaka Dori
1929
Woodblock print
Hakuba and Yarigadake
1929
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Kagurazaka Street after a Night Rain
after 1929
Color woodblock print
Suiren Marsh at Hakkōdasan
1929
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Autumn Foliage at Hakkodasan
1929
Color woodblock print
Nakabeshima
1930
Woodblock print
Harbour of Tomonoura
1930
Woodblock print
Waiting for the Tide
1930
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
![[Garden of] Taj Mahal, No. 1 (Taji Maharu no niwa, dai ichi) by Hiroshi Yoshida](https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/230993a7-d4f0-c979-c267-127d48e1ef1c/full/843,/0/default.jpg)
[Garden of] Taj Mahal, No. 1 (Taji Maharu no niwa, dai ichi)
Taji Maharu no niwa, dai ichi
1931
Color woodblock print; oban
Kailasa Temple at Ellora
1931
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
The Palace of Udaipur
1931
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Udaipur Castle (Udaipuru no shiro)
Udaipuru no shiro
1931
Color woodblock print; oban
Ghat in Benares (Benaresu no gatto)
Benaresu no gatto
1931
Color woodblock print; oban
The Outskirts of Agra No. 3
1932
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Taj Mahal, Night
1932
Woodblock print
Caravan from Afghanistan on a Moonlit Night
1932
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Manotake and Notoridake
1929
Color woodblock print
Yoshida-hiroshi
1933
Woodblock print
A Garden in Summer
1933
Woodblock print
Small Town in Chūgoku District
1933
Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, extensively. Yoshida visited the United States in 1899 (his first international tour), Europe in the 1920s, India and the Himalayas in 1930–31, and China and Mongolia in 1936. He produced woodblock prints from each of these tours, making him the most internationally focused of the shin-hanga artists.
Yoshida's 1931 'India and Southeast Asia' series contains 32 prints depicting the Taj Mahal, Benares, Darjeeling, Kanchenjunga, the Indian Himalayas, and street scenes. The Taj Mahal at six different times of day is one of the most-reproduced subsets of the series.
Yoshida broke from the Watanabe publishing programme in 1925 to found his own studio, where he supervised the carving and printing of his own designs while retaining the four-person workshop division. This made him a kind of hybrid figure — neither pure shin-hanga (he controlled production) nor sōsaku-hanga (he didn't carve or print himself).