Misty Day in Nikkō

Yoshida Hiroshi, artist

1876–1950

Misty Day in Nikkō, 1937, Showa period (1926–1989)

Where object was made: Japan

Material/technique: color woodcut

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 409.6 x 273.1 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 16 1/8 x 10 3/4 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 19 x 14 in

Credit line: Bequest of R.C. Moore

Accession number: 1974.0032

Not on display

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Images

Label texts

Shattering the Void: Realms of Meaning in East Asian Art

In this print, religious travelers dressed in traditional white clothes visit a group of Buddhist and Shinto shrines in Nikkō, Japan. The shrines at Nikkō were constructed in honor of the powerful military ruler Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616), who was later worshipped as the god Tosho Daigongen or the “Great Deity of the East Shining Light.” The artist who made this print is especially well-known for his skill in creating atmospheric effects, as seen in the trees that fade into the mist behind the shrine.

Salina Art Center: Shattering the Void: Realms of Meaning in East Asian Art

Shattering the Void: Realms of Meaning in East Asian Art

In this print, religious travelers dressed in traditional white clothes visit a group of Buddhist and Shinto shrines in Nikkō, Japan. The shrines at Nikkō were constructed in honor of the powerful military ruler Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616), who was later worshipped as the god Tosho Daigongen, or the “Great Deity of the East Shining Light.” The artist who made this print is especially well-known for his skill in creating atmospheric effects, as seen in the trees that fade into the mist behind the shrine.

Sacred Space and Japanese Art at the Spencer Museum of Art

This print is one of a set of six that Yoshida Hiroshi produced in 1937 representing scenes of Nikkō Shrine in Tochigi Prefecture. It depicts three pilgrims resting beside one of the shrine buildings. To the left is a flight of stone steps leading up to a torii gate and shrine. A dense and misty forest flanks the shrine, behind which the silhouette of the mountain is dimly visible.
Besides this particular shrine, the set of six prints portrays distinctive buildings and landscapes in the region of the sacred mountain Nikkō. The shrine complex was first built between 1617 and 1619 and was dedicated as the mausoleum to Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542–1616), the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate. Twenty years later, the third shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604–1651) had it reconstructed, which produced the shrine complex seen today.
Yoshida created the image of this historic monument with innovative printmaking techniques that show the gradation of multiple layers of color and subtle tonal changes. Unlike earlier artists producing woodblock prints, Yoshida achieved his desired results by being in charge of the entire printmaking process. The characters for “self-made” on the left margin testify to Yoshida’s more direct involvement in the production of this print.
Text by Pinyan Zhu

Exhibition Label:
"Tradition and Modernity: Japanese Art of the Early Twentieth Century," Jan-2005, Hillary Pedersen
Yoshida Hiroshi was a print artist and avid traveler based out of Tokyo. He first painted landscapes in oil but later won critical acclaim for his works in watercolor. Around 1920 he ventured into woodblock printing and became one of the major revivers of the artform. He depicted both Japanese and foreign scenes, and was closely involved in all steps of printing, including the carving of the woodblocks. Hiroshi’s style is said to resemble that of an English nineteenth-century watercolorist illustrating Japanese themes. His skillful depiction of the hazy atmosphere appears in the mist-obscured trees rising beyond the pilgrims, who are dressed in traditional white costumes. These travelers rest in front of one of many shrines at the Nikko shrine complex, constructed in honor of the powerful Edo period (1600-1868) military ruler, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616).

Archive Label date unknown:
In 1937, Yoshida created six prints showing scenes of Nikkō, the location of several important religious and historic sites. In this small series, he experimented with extremely complex overprinting, in one case using 96 impressions to create a single image. Misty Day is from the series and depicts pilgrims stopping beside a mountain temple. True to the series, its effects of mist enveloping the trees are achieved by an elaborate number of finely tuned impressions.