About This Print
Later in her career, the artist incorporated photolithography into her work, combining it, as in the case of this print, with traditional woodblock techniques. Here we have a view of Tokyo, specifically a "western suburb of the metropolis" in all its harshness, softened by the use of woodblock technique to add rain and and gradated pastel sky.
The artist comments:
Early on, the Tocho (Tokyo Metropolitan Office) was dismissed as an utter waste of tax money. But now, its 45th floor observatory seems to be popular among visitors. I have been on more that one date to that floor with my husband, Hodaka. There, on clear days, the town where I live can be seen beyond Tokyo's western suburbs of Nakano and Suginami. But because of haze, the view is often obstructed. Though most days are covered with this haze, the viewer can still readily see that Tokyo's western suburbs are packed with large and small buildings, apartments and houses. If an earthquake occurs, it is expected that this area will suffer the greatest damage.1
The Series One Hundred View of Tokyo: Message to the 21st Century
The series One Hundred Views of Tokyo: Message to the 21st Century (Tokyo Hyakkei niju-isseiki e no messeeji), was conceived and published by the Japan Print Association which was founded in 1931 by an amalgamation of print artists brought together by painter and print designer Okada Saburosuke (1869-1939). Throughout its history it has promoted its members work through domestic and international shows.2
In its preface to the first of two catalogs covering the 100 prints from 100 artists that comprise the series, the Association references past print series using Tokyo/Edo as their motif including series from the 1800s by Hiroshige and Hokusai and mid-20th century print series such as Shin Tokyo Hyakkei, undertaken by a group of eight artists in the late 1920s (including Onchi Kōshirō (1891-1955), Hiratsuka Un'ichi (1895-1997), Maekawa Senpan (1888-1960) and Kawakami Sumio (1895-1972)) and Koizumi Kishio's (1893-1945) long-running series (1928-1940) One Hundred Pictures of Great Tokyo During Showa, both of which depict the resurgence of Tokyo after the devastating 1923 Kanto Earthquake and fire. The Association goes on to say that their new Tokyo Hyakkei series will serve as "a witness of time" by the artists and will consist of "one hundred views by print by one hundred artists, which ultimately will take ten years in all [and] will present the changing international megalopolis Tokyo.... We are confident that [it] will achieve artistic and historical significance..."3
1 53rd CWAJ Print Show, Japanese Contemporary Prints 2008, College Women's Association of Japan, p. 131.
2 For more information visit the website of the Japan Print Association http://www.hangakyoukai.com/en/index.html
3 Tokyo Message to 21st Century: Tokyo Hyakkei (One Hundred Views of Tokyo) - The Fifty Prints of The First Half - 1989-1993,Japan Print Association, 1994, p. 5, 7.
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #1195 |
| Title | A view at the Western Suburb of the Metropolis - Rainy Season 望首都西郊・梅雨 Bo-shuto seikō・ baiu |
| Series | One Hundred Views of Tokyo: Message to the 21st Century 東京百景 ２１世紀へのメッセージ Tokyo hyakkei niju-isseiki e no messeeji |
| Artist | Yoshida Chizuko (b. 1924) |
| Signature | Chizuko Yoshida in English (lower right margin in pencil) |
| Seal | not sealed |
| Date | 1995 |
| Edition | first and only (72 of 100) |
| Publisher |  |
| Printer | unknown |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | excellent |
| Genre | sosaku hanga (creative print) |
| Miscellaneous |  |
| Format | |
| H x W Paper | 25 1/8 x 17 5/8 in. (63.8 x 44.8 cm) |
| H x W Image | 22 x 13 3/4 in. (55.9 x 34.9 cm) |
| Collections This Print | British Museum 2006,0220,0.52; Art Institute Chicago 2019.719.52 |
| Reference Literature |
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