Japanese woodblock print artist Toshi Yoshida is well known for his varied stylistic techniques.\u00a0 From experimentation with modern abstract art to emulations of classic Japanese landscapes, Toshi Yoshida executed all of his works with style and grace.\u00a0 Raicho, his first woodblock print, surpassed his father\u2019s rendering of the same subject in many critics\u2019 eyes.\u00a0 Yoshida excelled at depicting many different styles and subjects, but his first and favorite subject was animals.\u00a0 While Yoshida had an incredibly diverse portfolio when it came to portraying animals, including a complex series of African wildlife, he printed birds and flowers throughout his lifetime.\u00a0 Yoshida wasn\u2019t the first woodblock print artist to have an interest in portraying birds, and followed in the impressive footsteps of many woodblock print artists who came before him, adding his own unique perspective to the classic style of kacho-e<\/em>.<\/p>\n Kacho-e<\/em> is the formal word for classic Japanese bird and flower printing, which is a fairly prevalent theme in ukiyo-e<\/em>.\u00a0 Despite the name \u2018bird and flower\u2019 print, having both birds and flowers seems to be optional, and many people use the term kacho-e<\/em> for works that just have birds interacting with their natural habitat.\u00a0 However, prints of birds were not considered high art in Japan, and weren\u2019t nearly as sought-after as actor and landscape prints by Japanese collectors.\u00a0 Conversely, western collectors found the bird and flower prints fascinating and highly collectible.\u00a0 Ukiyo-e<\/em> garnered the attention of the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and the 20th Century Art Nouveau movement, and examples of kacho-e<\/em> could be found in the collections of Monet and Van Gogh.\u00a0 While kacho-e<\/em> is often dismissed as a lesser subject in comparison with its more popular contemporaries, the world of flower and bird painting is diverse and unquestionably beautiful, and doesn\u2019t deserve the reputation of an abnormal rarity.<\/p>\n Katsushika Hokusai was one of the first artists to transfer the bird and flower motif from drawings to woodblock prints.\u00a0 Works such as Peonies and Canary and Flock of Chickens provide an excellent example of Hokusai\u2019s flowing technique.\u00a0 While Hokusai is well known for his ability to create magnificent landscape prints that seem to exude movement, few scholars comment on how his ability to portray action transfers to the kacho-e<\/em> motif.\u00a0 The feathers in Flock of Chickens seem to swirl with movement, much like his better known works featuring water, and the facial expressions of the birds are almost human in their obvious portrayals of bewilderment and contentment.\u00a0 Among Hokusai\u2019s kacho-e<\/em> prints are several extremely rare small upright prints, which happen to be considered some of his best work.\u00a0 He also produced several well known illustrations for a book written by Katsushika Taito which were done under a pseudonym.<\/p>\n Following Hokusai was a young man named Ando Hiroshige, who managed to become quite popular in the world of ukiyo-e<\/em>, and his success with kacho-e<\/em> was unprecedented.\u00a0\u00a0 It has been estimated that Hiroshige managed to create over 5000 studies of birds and flowers during his forty year career.\u00a0 Hiroshige was greatly inspired by the Chinese tradition of bird and flower printing, and many of his works were done in a style that is obviously Chinese in origin.\u00a0\u00a0 Part of the reason that Hiroshige was so prosperous with his kacho-e<\/em> is because he was able to appeal to the part of Japan that craved elegant symbolic art done in a traditional style.\u00a0 His works featured several different birds, such as sparrows, roosters, geese, and parrots.\u00a0\u00a0 Hiroshige published his kacho-e prints in several different series.\u00a0 While the best known series with Hiroshige\u2019s kacho-e<\/em> is Kwacho (\u201cBirds and Flowers\u201d), it also appears in his prominent series \u201cOne Hundred Famous Views of Edo\u201d in the work An Eagle Flying over the Hundred-Thousand Tsubo Plain at Susaki near Fukagawa.\u00a0 This work features a magnificent view of a Hodgson\u2019s hawk-eagle circling snow covered plains in the dark night sky.\u00a0 The body of the bird is twisted in movement, as though ready to strike whatever prey it stalks below.\u00a0 Hiroshige\u2019s depiction of the eagle is an excellent example of his new contributions to kacho-e<\/em>.\u00a0 Hokusai may have brought the art of kacho-e<\/em> into the mainstream, but he strived to show the perfection in the birds and their surroundings.\u00a0 Hiroshige, on the other hand, had no problem with portraying the grittier pieces of reality in his works, from dying flowers to hunting birds.\u00a0 As H. G. Henderson comments in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin<\/em>, \u201cWhile Hokusai made a dream world, often of entrancing beauty, Hiroshige loved to set down the realities of nature, even its defects and oddities.\u00a0 As Japanese say even to the present day, it is astonishing how perfectly nature can copy the works of Hiroshige.\u201d<\/p>\n Toshi Yoshida followed in the footsteps of those famous woodblock printers who came before him and began a diverse portfolio of ukiyo-e<\/em>, including several examples of kacho-e<\/em>.\u00a0 Yoshida infused the style of kacho-e<\/em> with a new sense of realism and depth.\u00a0 While Hiroshige and Hokusai\u2019s kacho-e<\/em> prints are beautiful, they often seem two-dimensional and fall slightly short of seeming natural.\u00a0 Yoshida is able to take traditional subject matter and impart a new sense of style.\u00a0 Yoshida is known for his willingness to experiment with a multitude of artistic styles and techniques, yet his love of kacho-e<\/em> followed him throughout his life.\u00a0 Raicho was the first woodblock print Toshi Yoshida did by himself at the age of 19, capturing the subtle yet complex variation in colors of the grouse and her chicks as well as the intricate feathering.\u00a0 When first displayed, critics commented that the young Yoshida managed to surpass his father in portraying realistic animals.\u00a0 In 1975 he printed Cormorant Island, featuring a gaggle of cormorants on a craggy rock face.\u00a0 In the late 1970\u2019s and early 80\u2019s, Yoshida created two fantastic views of birds of prey soaring through the skies.\u00a0 The first, called Flying, portrayed a black owl with bright blue eyes flying through the twilight sky.\u00a0 A few years later he printed Flying Up, which featured a sinister looking hawk over a texturized background.\u00a0 Nearly sixty years after Raicho was conceived he created the Double Cherry and Maple prints, portraying small birds perched on a tree in the spring and autumn respectively.\u00a0 The print Dance of Eternal Love features two cranes, classic auspicious symbols of longevity, fluttering around each other in a snowstorm.\u00a0 This would be one of the last prints the ailing Toshi Yoshida would create before his death in 1995.\u00a0 It seems appropriate that kacho-e<\/em> highlighted the beginning and the ending of Yoshida\u2019s illustrious career as an artist.<\/p>\n Toshi Yoshida had an enormous impact on the world of woodblock printing as a whole, and his new and varied styles brought him well-deserved fame.\u00a0 His abstract work was a true contribution to woodblock printing.\u00a0 However, it would be a crime to overlook Yoshida\u2019s contribution to the world of classical bird and flower printing.\u00a0\u00a0 Following in the footsteps of such great artists as Hokusai and Hiroshige, Toshi Yoshida managed to take the common kacho-e<\/em> motif and infuse it with new life and realism.<\/p>\n “Birds in Japanese Art and Poetry.” Worcester Art Museum. 25 Mar. 2004. Worcester Art Museum. 29 Apr. 2006 <http:\/\/www.worcesterart.org\/Exhibitions\/Past\/birds_in_japanese.html>.<\/p>\n Bogel, Cynthea J., and Israel Goldman. Hiroshige Birds and Flowers. New York: George Braziller Inc., 1988. 9-29.<\/p>\n “Hanga Gallery: Bird and Flower Prints.” Hanga Gallery. 1998. 29 Apr. 2006 <http:\/\/www.hanga.com\/kacho-e\/>.<\/p>\n Henderson, H. G. “Japanese Prints on View.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 24 (1929): 101-103. 29 Apr. 2006 <http:\/\/links.jstor.org\/sici?sici=0026-1521%28192904%291%3A24%3A4%3C101%3AJPOV%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T>.<\/p>\n Shigeyoshi, Mihara. “Ukiyo-E, Some Aspects of Japanese Classical Picture Prints.” Monumenta Nipponica 6 (1943): 245-261. 29 Apr. 2006 <http:\/\/links.jstor.org\/sici?sici=0027-0741%281943%296%3A1%2F2%3C245%3AUSAOJC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K>.<\/p>\n Skibbe, Eugene M. Yoshida Toshi: Nature, Art and Peace. Seascape, 1996.<\/p>\n Stewart, Basil. A Guide to Japanese Prints and Their Subject Matter. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1979. 326-327.<\/p>\n Strange, Edward F. Hiroshige’s Woodblock Prints. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1983.<\/p>\n Watanabe, Masao. “The Conception of Nature in Japanese Culture.” Science: New Series 183 (1974): 279-282. 29 Apr. 2006 <http:\/\/links.jstor.org\/sici?sici=0036-8075%2819740125%293%3A183%3A4122%3C279%3ATCONIJ%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J>.<\/p>\n Disclaimer<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Toshi Yoshida and Kacho-e Japanese woodblock print artist Toshi Yoshida is well known for his varied stylistic techniques.\u00a0 From experimentation with modern abstract art to emulations of classic Japanese landscapes, Toshi Yoshida executed all of his works with style and grace.\u00a0 Raicho, his first woodblock print, surpassed his father\u2019s rendering of the same subject in … Continue reading “Lauren Dew”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":261,"featured_media":0,"parent":349,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"page-full_width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-405","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/kucera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/kucera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/kucera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/kucera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/261"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/kucera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/kucera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":629,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/kucera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/405\/revisions\/629"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/kucera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/kucera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Bibliography:<\/h4>\n
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