Natural places are alike in
that they have similar basic elements. They are conditioned by climate and
weather, shaped by land forms and water catchement basins, possess soils and
other geological characteristics, host native plants and animals, and have human
populations with cultures that adapt to these natural features. The combination
of these elements is a bioregional template.
What makes places different
from each other are the specific details. There can be polar snow or equatorial
sun, roaring rivers or still marshes, boulders or mud, palm trees and elephants
or redwood trees and bears, fur clad Inuits in the Arctic Circle or naked
Jivaros in the Amazon forest. All places have their own resonance that derives
from these particular ingredients. This resonance provides an experience that
only occurs in that particular locale, and it is perceptible to our senses in
innumerable direct and indirect ways: distinct bird calls, the feel of mist on
the face, or the rub of stones against shoe bottoms.
Undoubtedly the strongest
perception is the way a place looks. Its appearance to our eyes creates a more
complex sensory impression because there are so many visual levels. Each aspect
has its own individual appearance and at the same time blends with the other
parts. The shape of rocks has a particular relationship to the forms of native
trees. Whitecaps appear on rivers in steep mountains but not with the calm
snakelike movement of streams across flat plains. Light and shadow also shift
dramatically according to the position of the sun at different times of day. The
change of seasons can reorder everything, filling fields with the flash of
flowers in spring and repainting green trees yellow and red in fall.
Hiroshi Yoshida avidly sought the resonance of different places from California to India as a foundation for his shin hanga woodblock prints. He soaked up each bioregional essence and distilled it into portraits that were as unique as the places themselves.
“Grand Canyon” shows the utter dryness of the desert that surrounds an astounding natural phenomenon. Instead of staring down into the deep gorge of the river that made it, he looks across the top of the canyon to show layered forms that were carved out by the water. The colors are faded by intense sunlight but still contrast with each other enough to show the huge masses of stone that were effected. The lack of people and trees isolates and heightens the perception of this single powerful force of nature.
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On the other hand,
“Lugano” puts the works of humans prominently in the foreground. There is an
ample array of Alps Mountains bioregional elements from calm Lake Lugano in
bright sunlight to steep mountainsides and cliffs with only a trace of
vegetation. However, Yoshida underscores the beautiful adaptive culture of
houses made from native materials arranged in a descending pattern to fit the
slope of the land.
The creative milieu
preceding Hiroshi Yoshida was a unique crosscurrent of Eastern and Western
influences. Woodblock printing had reached a zenith with Edo era ukiyo-e
depictions by Hokusai and Hiroshige. When examples of this style reached Europe
they had a significant influence on Impressionist works by artists such as Van
Gogh (who actually copied a Hiroshige poster), Gaugin and Lautrec. Within a few
years Impressionism came to Japan where the forms and colors of Cezanne and
Monet began to seep into the new shin hanga woodblock print style.
Yoshida’s “The Sphinx”
exhibits this influence clearly. With only a few large blocks of juxtaposed
light and dark color on the bottom half of the face, he impressionistically
indicates the roundness of the Pharoah’s cheek without extensive detail, just
as Cezanne would have rendered the bulge of a mountain in a landscape.
Regardless of influences
stemming from other art or his extensive travels, Hiroshi Yoshida brought a
unique transcendence to his renderings of places. “Niagra Falls” stands as a
masterpiece because of this quality. When first viewed the print could almost be
a blue and white abstraction. A light puff of white in the center barely
suggests mist. Aided by the title it becomes evident that this is a scene of
foaming water headed over a precipice. As in “Grand Canyon” it is a
perspective across the top of a huge natural phenomenon and subtly shows just
two sides of a section of the falls with mist rising from the gap between them.
Rather than a frontal view with spectacular expanses of cascading water, this is
an uncommon close up of the impending descent. It is a metaphysical scene that
echoes traditional Japanese nature philosophy. Although the void in the dark
center has whirlpool-like intensity, the water impelled toward it is nearly calm
with gracefully curving white foam. There are small motionless clouds in the sky
that resemble the mist from the roaring falls. Enormous force and stillness are
opposite aspects of the same reality.
Although his significant works were done before 1940, Hiroshi Yoshida continues to exert influence today. Masami Teraoka’s revival of woodblock prints with Pop Art comments on contemporary East-West trends is an obvious descendant, and the present day Taoist poet-sage Nanao Sakaki acknowledges Yoshida as an inspiration for seeing more deeply into the value of wilderness.
March, 2005
