Yoshida Tо̄shi, “Iidabashi,” 1939

Woodblock print: A view of a canal in Iidabashi with six boats on the water and a townscape visible

Artist: Yoshida Tо̄shi (1911–1995)
Title: Iidabashi
Date: 1939
Medium: Full color woodblock print; ink and color on paper
Publisher: Self-published
Gift of Dr. Cecilia Segawa Seigle

Iidabashi illustrates a daytime view of a canal in the Tokyo district Iidabashi (inscribed in pencil, lower left.) The viewer is set hovering over placid water while small watercraft rest on the surface, compositionally balanced in two groups of three boats. Reading the image from right to left, the viewer is first confronted with a willow. Its downward sloping branches point the eye to a scene of conversation and familial life and continues to the right of towards a cityscape, animated by the unloading of cargo.

Iidabashi is self-published, from the series Tokyo by Day. Tо̄shi completed this three-print series in 1940 following his Tokyo at Night series initiated in 1938. As the name suggests, the series depicts various scenes in Tokyo in daylight. Tо̄shi’s choice of subject may evidence his engagement with the shin-hanga (“new prints”) movement, from which his father was a highly successful landscapist. Shin-hanga is often distinguished by its success in Western markets, dialogue with Western art and increasingly nostalgic views of idealized rural Japanese life.

Other impressions of this print can be found at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (S2003.8.3616); British Museum, London (1984,0517,0.5.d); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angles (as Iida Bridge, M.2000.105.111); Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis (2013.29.458); and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (41.286).

Selected Reading

  • Brown, Kendall. “Prints and Modernity: Developments in the Early Twentieth Century.” In The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints, edited by Amy Reigle Newland, 277–293. Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2005.
  • ———. “Yoshida Tо̄shi: The Nature of Tranquility.” In A Japanese Legacy: Four Generations of Yoshida Family Artists, edited by Laura W. Allen, 71–108. Minneapolis, Minn. : Chicago, Ill: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2002.
  • Goodall-Cristante, Hollis. “Shin-Hanga: Traditional Prints in a New World.” In Shin-Hanga: New Prints in Modern Japan, 11–34. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art ; University of Washington Press [distributor], 1996.
  • Merritt, Helen, and Nanako Yamada. Guide to Modern Japenese Woodblock Prints 1900–1975. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1992.
  • Petit, Gaston. 44 Modern Japanese Print Artists. Vol. 2. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1973.
  • Setsuko, Abe. “The Publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō and the Shin-Hanga Movement: Its Beginnings until the 1930s.” In The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints, edited by Amy Reigle Newland, 1:294–299. Zwolle: Hotei Publishing, 2005.
  • Skibbe, Eugene M. Yoshida Toshi: Nature, Art, and Peace. Edina: Seascape, 1996.
  • Smith, Lawrence. Modern Japanese Prints 1912–1989: Woodblocks and Stencils. London: BMP, 1994.
  • Statler, Oliver. Modern Japanese Prints: An Art Reborn. Tokyo: Turtle, 1956.
  • Till, Barry. Shin Hanga: The New Print Movement of Japan. Pomegranate Catalog, no. A136. San Francisco: Pomegranate, 2007.
  • “Yoshida, Toshi.” Benezit Dictionary of Artists. 31 Oct. 2011; Accessed 27 Sep. 2020 https://doi.org/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00200429.
  • Yoshida, Tо̄shi, and Rei Yuki. Japanese Print-Making: A Handbook of Traditional & Modern Techniques. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1966.

Posted by James K. Miller
October 27, 2020