Supper Waggon

Toshi Yoshida - First printed 1938

Although early editions of this print were produced in 1938, this version of the print was produced posthumously from the original blockset by the Yoshida Family Studio Publisher.. Although the print includes Toshi’s signature in the bottom right hand corner of the print, this is not the artists actual signature, but a hand carved facsimile of the signature, carved into one of the block sets used to create the print.

Toshi Yoshida produced the initial sketch, carved the wood blocks, and printed his own work. Being a posthumous print, this print is not printed by Yoshida, but by Numabe Shinkichi - identified by a stamp on the back of the print.

The print shows a woman in traditional Japanese costume with a child on her back, walking past a row of supper wagons that were common around railway or subway stations. The signs on the waggons to the left of the print show that the wagons are selling pork and beef.

The posthumous print by Numabe Shinkichi skilfully matches the prints originally produced by Yoshida, The ‘“bokashi” shading (the graduated colours) - particularly in the sky, and the waggon curtains in shadow demonstrates the skill of the printer.

Thomas Crossland and Dr Andreas Grund of the Ukiyo-e Gallery have written a detailed article that discusses the differences between a ‘life-time’ print produced by Yoshida (including an actual pencil signature), and a posthumous such as this print in my collection.

The article provides a great deal of information on two prints including Supper Waggon. They highlight that the colour “bokashi” graduations have become smoother in the later editions of the print because repeatedly applying the pigments to the block surface for each print have, over time, filled up the woodblocks natural pores, causing the loss of visible woodgrain in later edition prints, giving a smoother, but less textural print

Seal Information

Published Date

The initial publication date is identified by the top set of Japanese characters that appear in the left hand margin. The characters (shown below) translate to ‘Shōwa 13’ and refers to the 13th year (1938) of the Shōwa era (the region of Emperor Shōwa, from 25th December 1926 until his death on 7th January 1989).

Title

The title of the print is contained in the next two blocks of Japanese characters in the left hand margin, and translate to “Night in Tokyo - Supper Waggon”.

Artist Seal and Signature

Toshi Yoshidas seal and name appear in the bottom right hand corner of the print, inside the margin. Yoshida adopted the western style of signing his work, however the signature of this (posthumous) print is a facsimile of his real signature, carved into the woodblock, rather than the pencil signature that he used when producing prints in his life-time.