Tōshi Yoshida

72 records
Include records without images
About this artist

The son of Yoshida HIroshi, Yoshida Tōshi began training in drawing at age 3 and woodblock print making from the age of 13, producing prints from age 15. After graduating from Gyōsei middle school, he attended Dōshūsha Design Research Center, and Pacific Art School (Taiheiyō gakkai) to learn oil painting. Beyond what he learned about printmaking from his father, he also studied etching and lithography. In 1930, Tōshi traveled with his father to India, Burma, Malaysia and southeast Asia. In 1936, he traveled again with his father in northeast China and the Korean peninsula. In 1938, he exhibited with the Pacific Art School. In the postwar era, Tōshi's work was accepted for the first time into the Nitten national domestic art exhibition in 1947. He became active in the Japan Print Association in 1948, and entered international print biennials worldwide. In 1950, Tōshi withdrew from the Pacific Art School group and found the Plus Artist Group. It was around this time that he was producing abstract prints and drawings. In 1951, he became a full member of the Japan Print Association. He traveled to the United States in 1952 with the support of the Japan Society of New York, lecturing across the country and demonstrating woodblock printing technique. He then crossed to Europe. In 1954, he returned to the U.S. with his brother Hodaka, again lecturing and exhibiting their work. Afterwards, they went on to Cuba and Mexico. From 1966 forward, Tōshi did frequent lecture series and exhibitions in America. Starting in 1973, he traveled to east Africa and began producing prints of animals that he sketched there. He followed with trips to India, Australia and the South Pole, and in each of these places he sketched farmers and their implements for his prints. In 1980, in Miasa, Kitaazumi district of Nagano Prefecture, in an old schoolhouse, Tōshi established the Miasa Culture Center as a place to teach woodblock printing, glass blowing and ceramics, among other decorative arts.
Tōshi is also known for producing artist books (ehon). In 1982, he began a series of illustrated books on "Animals in Africa", which would eventually reach 17 volumes. He garnered multiple awards for this series, mostly abroad.
His work is in the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, among many other museums.
Hollis Goodall