Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950) | The Grand Canyon (Gurando kyanion) | Taisho period, early 20th century

Yoshida began his artistic career primarily as a yoga, or Western style watercolourist and oil painter who had previously visited the United States prior the turn of the century and garnered success exhibiting his works there. After the destruction of his woodblocks in the Great Kanto Earthquake and fire of 1923, he went on his third visit to America to promote his art. One of the outcomes of his travels was his print series The United States, which was based on oil paintings during his third visit to the States between December 1923 to August 1924.

Cut from mountain cherry blocks by the carver Maeda Yujiro (1889-1957), initially fifty copies were produced in the first printing. This was followed by a second and third with subtle variations and improvements, resulting in three different impressions of the present work. In some, the view of the Great Canyon vista is shown in soft, morning light hues, where other impressions capture the vast range in bolder mauves and oranges, highlighting the valley and its eroded surfaces and peaks.

For further reading on the artist’s time in America, see Lawrence Smith, ‘Japanese Prints 1868-2008’ in Since Meiji: Perspectives on the Japanese Visual Arts, 1868-2000, ed. J. Thomas Rimer, (Hawaii, 2012), p. 376.

Also, Ogura Tadao et al., The Complete Woodlock Prints of Yoshida Hiroshi, (Tokyo, 1987), p. 38-39, no. 11.

For another impression of the same print in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 47.386, go to:

https://collections.mfa.org/objects/129017

For a different impression in the collection of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (The AGGV), object number 2004.001.001, go to:

https://collections.mfa.org/objects/129017