Niagara Falls
Hiroshi Yoshida
Description
Yoshida Hiroshi 吉田博
Japan, 1876–1950
Niagara Falls
Taishō era (1912–26)
ca. 1925
Color woodblock print on paper
Museum purchase made possible by the Margaret Watson Parker Art
Collection Fund, 1993/2.30
In this print Yoshida Hiroshi combines Western and Japanese
techniques to great effect. For example, artists in the Western oil
painting tradition often incorporate flecks of white pigment in their
paintings to suggest light reflecting off a surface; this visual technique
is recreated here, but through the medium of woodblock printing,
along the waterfall’s ledge. Yoshida has also used negative space—a
technique more closely associated with Japanese art—to create a
similar effect. Negative space typically entails filling in the area
surrounding a form to suggest its content. Here, the technique has
been deployed to mimic the effect of light reflecting off the surface of
the waterfall, as seen on the flat area above the waterfall’s crest and in
its plunge.
(Japanese Gallery Rotation, Summer 2025)
Subject Matter:
Yoshida Hiroshi, living during the time when the Creative Print (sôsaku hanga) movement was gaining strength in the 1920s and 1930s, was not a member of the Creative Print movement. Unlike those sôsaku hanga artists who did everything themselves, Yoshida Hiroshi had carvers and printers produce his prints. Yet, unlike the traditional Ukiyo-e artists, he assumed the supreme authority over the production process, supervising the carvers and painters.
With his training in Western-style painting with oil, Yoshida Hiroshi had incorporated such skills into his woodblock printing and created unprecedented and original prints of the time. Landscape was a major theme of his works; he depicted not only scenes of Japan but also those of abroad. This print might have been from his United State series.
Physical Description:
This print is a depiction of the Niagara Falls.
Usage Rights:
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