Posted by Richard Parks on August 23, 2001 at 12:25:22:
In Reply to: Re: Hiroshi Yoshida "toku" (literally special) seal posted by Richard Parks on August 23, 2001 at 11:58:34:
Curious, and I may be jumping the gun just a bit. I've never seen an example of the "toku" kanji used on any of the available illustrations of H. Yoshida's prints (with or without "betsu"), yet here are two that have it. The notion of using the original blocks to create a slightly different image was well established, as Mr. Yoshida notes himself, but how were they marked? Were they marked at all? I haven't been able to find out much about the commemorative edition Toshi Yoshida did either, or what prints were involved or how they may have been identified on the print itself. This is both fascinating and frustrating, and I can't wait to find out what the answer might be.
-- Richard
: Laurie, thanks for that information. It's definitely interesting. I was leaning toward the prints being perhaps part of a special edition that Toshi Yoshida did fairly recently, but this suggests otherwise. I'll keep digging.
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: : Richard, This morning, I discovered that Hiroshi Yoshida's own written contribution to the "Baren Encyclopedia of Woodblock Printmaking" contains an interesting section on his production of "betsu-zuri" (special prints). The ideographs "toku" and "betsu" are typically used together to mean "special." Coincidentally, Yoshida uses Hirosaki Castle (referred to as "Cherry and Castle") and the "Sailing Boats" series as his examples of this special printing technique. There may be something to this. You can access Yoshida's writings on this subject on the Internet at: http://www.woodblock.com/encyclopedia/entries/011_07/chap_4d.html