Hodaka Yoshida
Contemporary printmaker
Japan
1926 - 1995
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objects by this artist.
Yoshida Hodaka was born in 1926 in Tokyo, Japan. The son of two celebrated print artists, Yoshida Hiroshi and Yoshida Fujio, Hodaka quickly developed an interest in the arts. He attended Daiichi High School, the best high school in Japan at that time. Despite being told to pursue science, he followed his passion to become an artist, much like his older brother, Yoshida Toshi, who encouraged him. He first began his career with abstract oil paintings, which were exhibited in 1948 at the Second Nihon Indepéndent exhibition, and then in the First Yomiuri Indepéndent the following year.
In 1949, Hodaka began to experiment with woodblock printing, but would not exhibit prints with his paintings until 1951. In 1952, he exhibited his prints at the Japan Print Association’s (Nihon Hanga Kyokai) annual show. The next year, Hodaka married the artist Chizuko Inoue, and the two joined the Abstract Art Club; that same year, Hodaka produced 36 prints. In 1957, he taught Japanese woodblock techniques at the University of Hawaii, the University of Oregon, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. In 1978, he became a committee member in the Japan Artists' Association. Later, he was a representative to the International Artists' Association as well as one of its vice presidents.
Hodaka began to participate in solo exhibitions, and showed in almost all of the College Women’s Association of Japan’s annual print shows, as well as international art biennials. This allowed him creative freedom, and subsequently Hodaka was always utilizing the newest methods and technologies of printmaking. Like the other Yoshida family artists, Hodaka traveled abroad frequently; he took much inspiration from indigenous cultures and artifacts. Hodaka died of an aneurysm in 1995.
Madison Duran ‘20
March 2019
Sources:
“Yoshida Hodaka (1926-1995).” The Lavenberg Collection of Japanese Prints,
www.myjapanesehanga.com/home/artists/hodaka-yoshida-1926-1995-.
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