YOSHIDA Chizuko

Born: 1924 in Yokohama, Japan. Died 2017
Medium: Woodblock

Yoshida Chizuko was born in 1924 in Yokohama Japan.  Although neither of her parents were artists she was drawn to dance and painting while at the Sato Girl’s High School in Tokoyo.  After graduating in 1941 she began studying oil painting privately at the studio of Kitaoka Fumio where she was introduced to woodblock printing.  During the 1940’s she also attended classes at the Hongo Art Institute, but was unable to get a degree because WWII interrupted her time there.  She evacuated to another city but later returned to Tokyo in order to continue painting.  At this time she joined The Pacific Painting Society which was established in 1902 by Yoshida Hiroshi.  It was here that she met Yoshida Hokada, the 2nd son of Hiroshi, and they later married in 1953.

Also in the late 1940s, Chizuko joined Seiki No Kai (transl.  Century Society), “a group of avant-garde artists, writers, and intellectuals who met regularly to discuss art theory and criticism”. During these seminars, Chizuko became interested in the relationship between Western modernism and traditional Japanese esthetics and began to adopt forms of abstraction in her work. This relationship would become a theme throughout her career.

Outside the studio, she used her prominence to act as an advocate for women helping to establish the first group of female print-makers, the Joryu Art Group and working to create Zonta, an organization of professional women, dedicated to improving the status of women worldwide.

Chizuko began to travel around the world with Hodaka and his mother, Fujio. These trips would provide inspiration for her woodblock prints, incorporating colors and forms seen abroad.  The prints range from geometric abstraction of music to phenomena in nature to beautiful gestures composed of butterflies or flowers.  A refined Japanese aesthetic prevails within her use of various modern international styles.

In December of 2014, Chizuko was one of five Japanese women artists featured in the Portland Art Museum’s exhibition titled “Breaking Barriers” Japanese Women Print Artists 1950-2000.  The largest collection of her works can be found in the Yokohama Museum of Art, with works also in the British Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Philadelphia Museum of Modern Art, and the Tokyo International Museum of Modern Art.