Toshi Yoshida (1911-1995) Japanese, "Half Moon Bridge" Woodblock Print. Depicts an iconic view of the bridge and surrounding town, with a stunning reflection in the water below and vibrant willows above. Titled in kanji vertically left middle in pen. Signed in English in pencil bottom right. Titled in English in pencil bottom left. A label on the back from Nikko Arts and Gifts in Berkeley, California gives the publish date as 1941. 

Overall Size: 16 1/2 x 13 in. 

Sight Size: 10 x 7 1/2 in. 

Tōshi Yoshida, born on July 25th, 1911, in Tokyo, was the son of renowned shin-hanga artist Hiroshi Yoshida. Paralyzed in one leg as a child, he spent much of his early years observing animals and assisting in his father’s printmaking workshop, encouraged by his grandmother Rui to sketch animals. While Hiroshi sought to train him early on in landscape painting to continue his legacy, Tōshi ultimately chose animals as his primary subjects in 1926, but his career faced challenges under Japan’s military dictatorship in the 1930s and 40s, with censorship and wartime destruction of much of his prewar work. He married Kiso Yoshida in 1940 and had five sons, and after his father’s death in 1950 he broke from naturalism, producing oil paintings and, by 1952, abstract woodcuts influenced by his brother Hodaka. He exhibited widely in the United States, Mexico, and England, becoming a leading figure in the sōsaku-hanga movement, and between 1954 and 1973 he produced 300 abstract prints, later returning to animals, particularly birds, often with African motifs, and illustrating children’s books. He died of cancer on July 1st, 1995, leaving a legacy as one of 20th Century Japan’s most innovative artists.

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