Hiroshi Yoshida "Misty Day in Nikko" Japanese Woodblock Print, 1937

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Hiroshi Yoshida
(Japan, 1876-1950)


Hiroshi Yoshida (1876–1950)

Misty Day in Nikko 日光霧の日


Woodblock print in colors on paper, signed "Hiroshi … Read more Hiroshi Yoshida
(Japan, 1876-1950)


Hiroshi Yoshida (1876–1950)

Misty Day in Nikko 日光霧の日


Woodblock print in colors on paper, signed "Hiroshi Yoshida" in pencil, lower right; titled "Misty Day in Nikko" in pencil, lower left; inscribed jizuri (自摺, "self-printed") in the left margin; with the artist's red seal, lower right.


Sight: 10 ¼ x 15 ½ inches (26 x 39.4 cm)

Frame: 17 x 22 ½ inches (43.2 x 57.2 cm)


A master of the shin-hanga ("new print") movement, Hiroshi Yoshida trained first as a painter in the Western academic tradition before turning, in the 1920s, to woodblock printmaking — a medium he would revolutionize by acting as his own publisher, carver, and printer, ensuring an unusual degree of artistic control over color, registration, and edition quality. Notably, the present sheet bears the characters 自摺 (jizuri), "self-printed," in the left margin — an inscription used by Yoshida to distinguish impressions pulled under his own hand from those printed by studio assistants or, in later years, by his family's workshop after his death. Impressions bearing this mark are generally considered among the most desirable to collectors, as they represent Yoshida's most direct personal involvement in the printing process.



Misty Day in Nikko exemplifies the sensibility for which Yoshida's prints are prized among American and European collectors. The composition draws the eye through a colonnade of towering cedars — the famed sugi avenues for which the Nikko shrine complex is celebrated — toward the vermilion lacquer and weathered bronze of a subsidiary shrine building, its roofline emerging from drifting mist. In the foreground, three travelers in traditional straw hats and pilgrim's dress pause to rest at the base of an ancient cedar trunk rendered in dense, textural detail, their inclusion lending scale and human warmth to the monumental setting. The muted, tonal palette of blue-greys and soft ochres, built up through subtle bokashi (gradation) printing, evokes the humid, veiled atmosphere of the title with remarkable subtlety — a hallmark of Yoshida's technical virtuosity and his lifelong fascination with weather and light as subjects in their own right.



Nikko, a UNESCO World Heritage site north of Tokyo renowned for its Edo-period shrines and shogunal mausolea set within old-growth forest, was a recurring subject for Yoshida, who returned to it across several print series over the course of his career. See less