Taji Maharu no yoru, dai roku (Taj Mahal at night, no. 6)

Yoshida Hiroshi was a keen traveler and watercolorist throughout his lifetime. During travel, he would make preparatory drawings and watercolors for later use in his woodblock print. The India series was produced using this method. Aside from Yoshida’s love of mountains and scenery within Japan, his frequent travels also inspired him to make prints from foreign scenery. The India series was among his most renowned ones.

The prints of the Taj Mahal by Charles Bartlett (see lot 104-106 in the current sale) were said to be a distant influence on Yoshida's decision to make his trip to India, a land he has long admired. Yoshida aimed to recreate the unique scenery of India, especially its scenery with different light and air in a place with a distinct climate and customs from Japan. Yoshida arranged his itinerary to welcome the full moon in Agra by calculating the moon phase, and he succeeded in achieving his goal. As a result, he captured not only daytime views but also the nighttime views he longed for, resulting in six woodblock prints. Taji Maharu no yoru, dai roku (Taj Mahal at night, no. 6) was the most mystic. The night scene captured the Taj Mahal’s garden at nightfall, with the serenity of the reflection of water and the resting or perhaps pondering people accompanying the great Taj Mahal in the back.

The print was designed in a one-point perspective, with an ambivalent torch fire in the far ground sitting in the visual center. The Taj Mahal’s architectural perfection was shown in the center, contrasting with the symmetrical groups of people in the foreground. This contrast between the movement and variety of activities in the front and the seemingly permanent and immortal beautiful Taj Mahal in the background adds a dynamic element to the scene.

Taji Maharu no yoru, dai roku (Taj Mahal at night, no. 6) and Taji Maharu no asagiri, Daigo (Morning mist at the Taj Mahal, no. 5 [lot 88 in the current sale]) were created under the betsuzuri method, by using the same set of wood blocks with different colors to make various impressions. Depicting the Taj Mahal at different times of the day reveals its sublime, standing in the solemn night and waking in the first ray of morning sunlight.