Kagurazaka Street after Night Rain

Yoshida Hiroshi made this color woodblock print in 1929 for his series Twelve Scenes of Tokyo. It records a modern Tokyo subject within a series devoted to views of the city. Yoshida began as a painter and studied in Kyoto before continuing his training in Tokyo. He made his first woodblock print in 1920 and became one of the best-known artists of shin-hanga, or New Print, a movement that renewed Japanese woodblock printing for a modern audience. He was unusually closely involved in the production of his prints, directing such choices as the blocks and colors. His travels in Japan, Europe, and Asia also supplied many of the studies that he later developed as prints.