Yoshida Family Artists - Development

Development

Their artistic trajectory began modestly.

Prior to the mid-19th century, the Yoshida artists serving the Nakatsu clan presumably provided work in a traditional Japanese style on silk, paper, or board. But then in the Meiji Period, when the structures of Japanese society were changing radically, a young artist by the name of Kasaburo Haruno changed his name to Kasaburo Yoshida (1861–1894) when he married Rui Yoshida and was adopted into her family. (Japanese names here are in the Western order, first the individual name, followed by the family name.) Kasaburo shifted from being a traditional Japanese style artist to becoming a pioneer in early Western style art. Whereas he had been serving the clan, he now became an art teacher in one of the schools established by the clan.(Allen et al., 19-20)

Then, because Kasaburo and Rui at that time had four daughters and no son, they adopted Hiroshi Ueda who became Hiroshi Yoshida (1876–1950) as he joined the family and married one of the daughters, Fujio Yoshida (1887–1987). (A Japanese Legacy, 24, 27) He began with watercolors, but soon became a prize-winning Western-style artist in oils, and late in his career led in a thorough renewal in Japanese woodblock art.(Tadao et al., 178-80)