Hiroshi Yoshida

Yoshida Hiroshi displayed his talent for drawing at an early age

Yoshida Hiroshi was born Hiroshi Ueda on 19 September 1876 in the city of Kurume in Fukuoka Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū in Japan. His father, the samurai Ueda Tsukane often moved home with his family so that travel became a habit from an early age, one which the artist maintained later on. However, it was not his biological father who had a decisive influence on Yoshida Hiroshi's career: far more important was his drawing teacher Yoshida Kasaburō, who recognised his young pupil’s great talent, adopted him, and encouraged him. He also ensured that Yoshida Hiroshi was sent to Kyōto at the age of 19 to study oil painting in the Western style - familiar in Japan since the Meiji Restoration - under Tamura Sōryū. In 1894, Yoshida went to Tokyo and continued his studies for a further three years under Koyama Shōtarō (1857-1916) at the private Fudosha School of Painting. 

International success with watercolours and woodcut prints

In 1899, Yoshida Hiroshi travelled to the USA where he had his first exhibition in America at the Detroit Museum of Art (now the Detroit Institute of Art) and afterwards visited Boston, Washington and Providence. The great success of his watercolours provided him with the financial means for further trips, which took him to France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland before returning to Japan via the USA, and the artist continued to travel to the USA and Europe in the years that followed. In 1920, he made the acquaintance of the influential art publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885-1962), who had initiated the art movement of New Woodblock Prints (Shin-hanga) and found an important comrade-in-arms in Yoshida, who also now turned his attention to woodblock prints. However, the collaboration only lasted a few years, which was also due to the fact that numerous print templates were lost in the Great Kantō earthquake on 1 September 1923.

Atmospheric play with various colour palettes

In 1925, Yoshida Hiroshi opened his own studio and employed several carvers and printers. The prints were produced under his strict supervision, but at the same time he encouraged the young artists to follow their hearts and realise their own artistic ideas, even against the prevailing trends. Yoshida Hiroshi was a master in the use of colour, through the variation of which he was able to create very different moods using the same blocks. His contacts in the West, primarily with Americans, as well as his extensive travelling experiences had a lasting influence on Hiroshi's art, and in 1931, he published a series of prints with scenes from Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Singapore, including six views of the Taj Mahal in different colours. During the Second World War, he was one of the painters sent to China by the Japanese government. At the age of 73, Yoshida Hiroshi travelled to Izu and Nagaoka, where he created his last two works and fell seriously ill.

Yoshida Hiroshi died in Tokyo on 5 April 1950. His son Yoshida Tōshi (1911-1995) was also a famous woodblock print artist.