Can you tell us about the exhibition, and your connection to Japanese woodblock printing?
The exhibition Yoshida: Three Generations of Japanese Printmaking focuses on the renowned Yoshida family of printmakers. It showcases the work of three male, Hiroshi (1876-1950), Tōshi (1911-1995) and Hodaka (1926-1995) and three female members, Fujio (1887-1987), Chizuko (1924-2017) and Ayomi (1958-) of this artistic family spanning over a century. The exhibition aims to demonstrate the evolution of Japanese printmaking as seen through their prints. Another emphasis is the contribution of the female artists of the Yoshida family to Japanese printmaking and their role in supporting female artists in Japan.
The exhibition explores the continuities and changes in Japanese printmaking from the shin hanga (new prints) movement, led by the patriarch Yoshida Hiroshi, to the sōsaku hanga (creative prints) movement of the second generation, showcased by the prints of Tōshi, Hodaka and Chizuko. These three artists of the second generation were inspired by abstract art, pop art and surrealism, incorporating modern techniques such as screen-printing, collage and photoetching into traditional Japanese printmaking. The exhibition concludes with an installation by the current-generation artist, Yoshida Ayomi, showcasing traditional and contemporary print techniques beyond the sheet of paper.
I am the project curator for the Yoshida special exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. I work as a curator and lecturer of Japanese art, and I have been researching Japanese woodblock prints for over thirty years. I studied Japanese Studies and Oriental Art History at Bonn University in Germany, worked at the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne and lived many years in Japan.
What’s your favourite piece in the exhibition?
My favourite piece in the exhibition is the site-specific installation by the third-generation artist, Yoshida Ayomi (1958-), titled Transient Beauty. The installation consists of two large-scale wallpaper hangings featuring scenes of a cherry tree in full bloom and a cherry tree affected by wind and rain, set above a riverscape.
The petals of the flowering cherry trees are made of hand-printed thin gampi paper, with 10,000 of these paper petals applied during the installation by Ayomi and her team. The third wall, situated between the wallpaper scenes, is covered in 30 carved and partly inked woodblocks that continue the cherry trees, blossoms and riverscape themes. These woodblocks are made from birch plywood, sourced in Hokkaido, Japan.
The installation was inspired by her grandfather’s print Kumoi Cherry Trees from 1926 which is on display in the first room of the exhibition. This print by Hiroshi is based on one of his watercolour paintings Memories of Japan from 1899 (Detroit Institute of Arts). Kumoi Cherry Trees is related to the famous hanami (cherry blossom viewing), sites in Japan, Yoshino, east of Osaka. In addition to her grandfather’s work, Ayomi drew inspiration from the cherry trees around Dulwich Village and Herne Hill.
Through Ayomi’s installation, the exhibition comes full circle, highlighting two important and recurring themes in Japanese art: seasonality and impermanence.
What are the unmissable moments from the exhibition?
Yoshida Hiroshi has a special connection with the Dulwich Picture Gallery as he visited the gallery in 1900 and signed the visitor book. The first room of the exhibition is dedicated to Hiroshi’s oeuvre. His landscape prints and famous views of sites in Japan and abroad provide an amazing overview of the landscape genre in the shin hanga style. Hiroshi was initially a watercolour artist until the age of forty-four, and his prints have a beautiful painterly quality due to the technique of overprinting. His prints show great innovation and mastery of Japanese printmaking.
The second room introduces the work of his wife Fujio, who only produced fifteen woodblock prints in her lifetime. Six of her close-up views of flowers are on display, showing her unique ability to capture a naturalistic motif in a semi-abstract way.
The works of Toshi and Hodaka, the sons of Yoshida Hiroshi and Fujio and Hodaka’s wife Chizuko have particularly captivated the visitors. The three artists, who belong to the second generation of the Yoshida family, combined traditional Japanese printmaking techniques with Western ones while also exploring abstract expressionism and other Western art styles in their prints. This combination represents a significant shift and refreshing renewal in the artistic direction of the Yoshida family.
The room where Ayomi’s installation is positioned has the roof lights open for the first time, producing an almost meditative atmosphere and mesmerising mood in the room, due to the different weather and light conditions impacting the installation.
Are there any connections between the artistic styles of each family member?
The exhibition’s artworks demonstrate changes and continuities among the different members of the Yoshida family. Despite the significant changes brought by the second and third generations, their work still shows influence from traditional Japanese printing making, such as the application of ink and water-based pigments, and the use of woodblocks and techniques like gradation (bokashi) or blind printing (karazuri) which are evident in their prints.
Additionally, there are recurring motifs depicting iconic Japanese themes, such as seasonality, nature, famous views and landscapes, creating a connection across the six artists. Hiroshi’s work frequently reflects the impact of changing daytime and light conditions on the rendered scenes, a theme also explored by Fujio in her blossom prints, and an essential aspect in Ayomi’s installation.
Is it a rare opportunity for audiences to see these works in the exhibition?
This exhibition is the first special exhibition on the printworks of the Yoshida family in Europe and the UK. Almost eighty works are on display, with three-quarters of the prints sourced from the collection of the Fukuoka Art Museum, located on the southern island of Kyushu in Japan. The Fukuoka Art Museum boasts one of the largest and most significant collections of Yoshida family prints in the world. Additional works are on loan from the British Museum and The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Therefore, it is a unique treat to be able to explore the legacy of this family across three generations in such a comprehensive manner. In particular, Ayomi’s site-specific installation offers an extremely unique and rare opportunity, as it will never be shown in this way anywhere else.
Yoshida: Three Generations of Japanese Printmaking is showing at Japan House London now. Book tickets and find out more here.
