Overview
Just how far back before that their work extended is unclear, but the first artists who appear in recorded history served the Nakatsu clan who lived in Oita Prefecture, on Kyūshū, the southernmost part of the Japanese archipelago. (A Japanese Legacy, 18ff) Late in the century they moved to Tokyo.
Over the past 150 years the ten leading Yoshida artists, extending through four generations, have used a wide variety of media, styles, and techniques. In this way the family embodies an outline of main developments in modern Japanese art history. Within the family there have been five women artists, in three generations, in effect a case study for the emergence of women in public life and artistic leadership in that country.(Allen et al., 152-3) Finally, the Yoshidas represent an interesting example of the way the Japanese people have often used adoption and arranged marriages to reinforce certain desirable traits associated with a family’s name. (Modern Japanese Prints, 167)(Skibbe, Yoshida Toshi, 34)
Read more about this topic: Yoshida Family Artists