Hiroshi Yoshida

Hiroshi Yoshida - Cristina Berna

Hiroshi Yoshida was born 19 September, 1876 in Kurume, Fukuoka. He died 5 April, 1950 (aged 73) in his home in Tokyo.

Hiroshi Yoshida was born Hiroshi Ueda. At the age of 15, he was adopted by the Yoshida family after his talent for painting was discovered by Kasaburo Yoshida, a junior high school art teacher.

In 1920, at the age of 44, Yoshida presented his first woodcut at the Watanabe Print Workshop, organized by Shōzaburō Watanabe (1885-1962), publisher and advocate of the shin-hanga movement.

Yoshida believed that the painter should have supreme authority and assume the role of director, not the publishing house. Yoshida was known to be meticulous about the process and quality of his finished prints. He did not give his prints the "seal of approval" or the stamp of his name, "jizuri" (self-print), unless he was extremely satisfied with the end result.

At the age of 73, Yoshida took his last sketching trip to Izu and Nagaoka and painted his last works The Sea of Western Izu and The Mountains of Izu. He became sick on the trip and returned to Tokyo where he died on 5 April, 1950, at his home.