El Capitan, Yosemite Valley (Yosemittodani Eru Kyapitan), from the series The United States, 1925

Color woodblock print

16 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches (41.9 x 27.3 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bequest of
Althea de B. Budd, 1973

1973-202-39

Initially trained in Western-style painting, Yoshida Hiroshi began making woodblock prints in 1920 with Watanabe Shōzaburō, the influential publisher of the Shin hanga or New Print movement in the early twentieth century. In 1925 Hiroshi started his own printmaking studio, publishing his first set of “self-made” prints showing famous places in the United States he had sketched while on a visit. These included Mount Rainier, Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, and Yosemite, shown here, among others.

Eileen Gao