Which Hiroshi Yoshida prints are original?

Which Hiroshi Yoshida prints were printed during his lifetime?

It's best to identify lifetime impressions by learning to assess an impression based on the wear state of woodblocks and Hiroshi Yoshida's very high standard of printing rather than relying on the following seals. Most investors are pricing shin-hanga basically on seals in the margins, while it's pretty easy to erase and change seals in the margins.

1. Brush signature and seal

The brush signature is most important for identifing prints that were printed during Hiroshi Yoshida's lifetime (1876 - 1950).

Lifetime prints had a black-ink brush signature applied by hand, usually in either lower corner within the image. This hand-brushed signature reads Yoshida よし田 and is unique on each and every print. The vermilion rectangular seal reads Hiroshi 博

On posthumous prints, Yoshida's signature was block printed in one of three types. Note that block signatures wore and were repaired over time. There were rare exceptions to the three type: prints that were frontispieces or in collaborations had block signatures specific to them.

2. Jizuri seal

The Jizuri 自摺 seal is the next most important seal. This seal can be counterfeited, which is why it's less important than Yoshida's unique brush signature. The Jizuri seal was also not applied to all large lifetime prints nor was it usually applied to any small-sized lifetime prints whereas his brush signature was always applied.

This Jizuri seal was usually applied in the left margin. Jizuri translates to self-printed or, printed by the artist, however many thousands of prints featured this seal surely must be Hiroshi Yoshida's approval seal and in fact indicated self published.

The Jizuri seal varied in size and colour. Such variations clearly had different meanings within the Yoshida Studio. Large Jizuri seals for example were typically applied on earlier impressions. Red Jizuri seals were applied to bold and brightly-coloured impressions. When he began publishing, Yoshida had been travelling to the United States for 25 years and certainly knew that brighter colours were printed by publishers for United States market tastes.

The Jizuri seal was never applied to posthumous prints.

The seal is frequently mistaken for the Toku 特 seal. The Toku or special seal was applied to posthumous reprints that funded Yoshida's 1987 catalogue raisonne.

3. Print title and signature in Roman script

Many prints did not have English titles nor were they signed in Roman script. Yoshida's prints destined for the United States market were usually titled and hand-signed in pencil in the lower margin. It's entirely possible that Hiroshi Yoshida never intended the Roman-script signature as a sign of authenticity and it was less important than his Japanese signature since the pencil signature was not always by the same hand — often it looked more like Toshi Yoshida's hand and sometimes a different hand altogether. Many posthumous impressions of El Capitan, without Jizuri seals, were hand-signed, probably by Toshi Yoshida.

The Roman-script signature was block printed on most posthumous prints and sometimes it did in fact overlap the image. An extreme example was a block-printed signature wholely within the image of Glittering Sea.

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Which Hiroshi Yoshida prints were printed posthumously?

Posthumously printed means an impression that was printed from the original woodblocks after the artist's death. Posthumous prints are often called restrikes or atozuri (later prints).

1. All Hiroshi Yoshida posthumous prints had a block-printed Japanese signature
2. No Hiroshi Yoshida posthumous prints had a Jizuri seal.
3. Hiroshi Yoshida posthumous prints usually had a block-printed Roman-script signature.

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Did Hiroshi Yoshida carve woodblocks for his prints?

Probably not. Hiroshi Yoshida's first prints were designed for and published by Watanabe Shozaburo.

Yoshida's first prints featuring his self-published Jizuri seal in 1925 were carved by Yamagishi Kazue. Yamagishi had trained in Japan as a carver and in Europe as a painter and very likely introduced Yoshida to the photo-etched zinc blocks that became a staple of the Yoshida Studio. Yoshida's sons Toshi and Hodaka each mastered zinc blocks.

In 1925 Yoshida also employed Maeda Yujiro, who was probably working for Watanabe. These prints included most of the United States and Europe series.

Ben Bruce Blakeney, writing immediately after Yoshida's passing, wrote that Yoshida carved prints however Yoshida's own correspondence contradicts this assertion. Sailing Boats and Rapids for example were, according to the artist, carved by Maeda Yujiro.

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Did Hiroshi Yoshida print his own prints?

Sometimes. Hiroshi Yoshida was a skilled printmaker and published a book on printmaking. However he physically could not have printed the thousands of prints sold during his lifetime especially given his globetrotting schedule. His prints were very labour intensive with typically between 25 to 75 printing impressions and he actually described conducting teams of printers making his prints. Hiroshi Yoshida was also a shrewd businessman and, in an era of cheap labour, he most likely would have printed a master impression/reference print and left the rest to his Studio.

Impressions sealed shizuri 試摺 or test print are known and may have been printed by the artist.

An aside here, 50 or 100 printing impressions on a single sheet was not exceptional for shin-hanga. The impression count in my own printmaking increases quite quickly and easily with mulitple layers of colour, gradations, sujizuri or gomazuri. Tsuchiya Rakuzan was known for 200+ printing impressions on a single sheet although his work was not necessarily better for it.

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Which Hiroshi Yoshida prints are reproductions?

A reproduction means an impression that was not printed from the original woodblocks. A new set of woodblocks was carved. The Yoshida family, like the Doi family, and unlike the Watanabe family, do not make it explicitly clear which prints were recarved and as such are reproductions.

Known reproductions

Only one posthumous print appears to be a reproduction. Hodakayama After Rain was recarved by Endo Kokyoku in 1978.

Fire

A fire reportedly destroyed Toshi Yoshida's stored woodblocks in 1980. It is not known if this included any of Hiroshi Yoshida's woodblocks.

Lifetime of zinc keyblocks

At least 50 of Yoshida's prints are thought to use a zinc keyblock and these would be nearly 100 years old.

Zinc corrodes leaving the metal relief unprintable. The appeal of zinc is that thousands of impressions can be pulled with minimal block wear. The trade off is that zinc corrodes more quickly than wood decays. The pictured zinc block, stored in Tokyo, is effectively unprintable. Note that the zinc acted as an anode preventing nails corroding.

A period of poor quality impressions

Reprints from 1985 and 1986, prints from Inland Sea series, are often seen very poorly printed, then missing the keyblock altogether, and then well printed. This strongly suggested that the Yoshida Studio printer, Komatsu Heihachi, was struggling with old blocks and that at least some blocks required replacing and re-registering.

Zinc keyblocks are made photographically and a new zinc block can be perfectly substituted. Colour woodblocks are relatively easy to recarve. Toshi Yoshida, the Yoshida Studio principal, was making zinc blocks in the same years for prints in his Snow Country series.

1990s reprints

In 1992 and 1993, the twelve prints from Japanese Alps series were printed in an edition of 380. They were printed for the 110th anniversary of naming of the alps. Comparing lifetime prints to these, there were minor differences in keyblock impressions and definitely some colour blocks were replaced. Hiroshi Yoshida certainly would not approve the printing.

Family disagreement

Following Toshi Yoshida's passing in 1995 there is a family disagreement over reprinting Hiroshi's woodblocks, according to David Bull.

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