Each depicting the same sailing boats at a different time of day, Yoshida Hiroshi’s iconic Sailboats (1926) series use the exact same woodblocks to create distinct atmospheres through subtle variations in color, tone, and light, demonstrating both the expressive possibilities of the woodblock medium and Yoshida’s exceptional mastery of the technique.
This series revisits a subject Yoshida had first explored in 1921 under the direction of Watanabe Shozaburo, an influential publisher and central figure in the early 20th century Japanese art world who coined the term shin-hanga, literally ‘new prints.’ These earlier woodblocks were unfortunately destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Yoshida’s return to the subject in 1926, while using the similar composition as the earlier prints, departs from the more expressive character of the Watanabe editions, embracing instead a more serene and tranquil form of expression. More notably, for this series and after stopped working with Watanabe, Yoshida took control of the entire printmaking process. He has then on continued to self-issue all his prints.