{{Short description|Japanese artist (1924–2017)}}
{{Multiple issues| {{more citations needed|date=August 2010}} {{More footnotes needed|date=August 2010}} }}{{Infobox artist | children = Ayomi Yoshida | spouse = Hodaka Yoshida | movement = Modernism, Abstract expressionism, Op art | birth_date = {{Birth date|year=1924|month=March|day=20}} | death_date = {{death date and age |2017|April|1 |1924|March|20}} | known_for = Woodblock prints, geometric abstraction, embossing | death_place = Yokohama, Japan | birth_place = Yokohama, Japan }}
{{Nihongo|'''Chizuko Yoshida''' (née '''Inoue''')|吉田 千鶴子|Yoshida Chizuko|March 20, 1924 – April 1, 2017 Yokohama}} was a Japanese modernist artist, whose work reflected the development of art in Japan following World War II. She was noted for providing a connective link between widespread modern art movements (such as abstract expressionism and op art) and traditional Japanese imagery.<ref>{{cite web |title=Yoshida Chizuko (1924–2017) |url=http://www.myjapanesehanga.com/home/artists/chizuko-yoshida |publisher=my japanese hanga |accessdate=25 August 2020}}</ref>
She was also important as the middle link in the succession of three generations of women artists in the widely recognized Yoshida family. She was the wife of artist Hodaka Yoshida (1926–1995). Hodaka's mother, Fujio Yoshida (1887–1987), was a noted artist alongside of her husband Hiroshi Yoshida (1876–1950). Chizuko's daughter, Ayomi Yoshida (born 1958), is well known for her modernist woodblock prints and room-size woodblock-chip installations. Three generations of women artists in one family is a rare phenomenon in Japanese art history.
== Early life and education == Despite later marrying into the Yoshida family of artists, neither of Chizuko-san's parents were artists. Her first creative experiences involved dancing in the Nichigeki Dance Team as a middle school student. Six months of this endeavor left Chizuko ill, forcing her to stop performing, though later in her career she would use dance-related themes in her visual work.
Chizuko then studied art at the Sato Girl's High School in Tokyo, where she began watercolor painting.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Chizuko Yoshida Woodblock Prints|url=https://www.asianartscollection.com/a/Chizuko-Yoshida/102|url-status=live|access-date=2021-12-11|website=The Koller Collection of Asian Art|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200929044227/https://www.asianartscollection.com/a/Chizuko-Yoshida/102 |archive-date=2020-09-29 }}</ref> Following graduation, she began studying under painter and printmaker, Fumio Kitaoka. While interning at Kitaoka's studio, Chizuko practiced oil painting and was first exposed to woodblock printing, which would later become an essential part of her practice.<ref name=":0" />
In 1941, she studied design at Hongo Art Institute in Tokyo but did not get a degree because World War II interrupted her time there. Chizuko evacuated to Ayoama, but moved back to Tokyo after the war's end to continue painting.<ref name=":0" />
== Career == In the late 1940s, Chizuko became a member of two important art associations. The first was ''Taiheiyō-Gakai'' ({{Translation|Pacific Painting Society|i=yes}}), an art group established in 1902 by her future father-in-law Hiroshi Yoshida and Ishikawa Toraji. In 1949, Chizuko was made an associate and would go on to exhibit with the group.<ref name=":0" /> The second art coalition was ''Shuyōkai'' ({{Translation|Vermillion Leaf Society|i=yes}}), a group for female oil painters established by her future mother-in-law Fujio Yoshida and her artist associates in 1920.<ref name=":0" /> Chizuko won a prize for her entry in a ''Shuyōkai'' exhibition.
Also in the late 1940s, Chizuko joined ''Seiki No Kai'' ({{Translation|Century Society|i=yes}}), "a group of avant-garde artists, writers, and intellectuals who met regularly to discuss art theory and criticism,"<ref name=":0" /> hosted by Okamoto Tarō, a leading Surrealist painter and critic.<ref name=":0" /> During these seminars and through Tarō's teachings, Chizuko became interested in the relationship between Western modernism and traditional Japanese aesthetics, and began to adopt forms of abstraction in her work. This relationship would become a theme throughout her career.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=YOSHIDA, CHIZUKO (1924 - 2017 )|url=https://www.roningallery.com/collections/artists/chizuko-yoshida|url-status=live|access-date=2021-12-11|website=Ronin Gallery|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116233612/https://www.roningallery.com/collections/artists/chizuko-yoshida |archive-date=2021-01-16 }}</ref>
Chizuko would meet her husband and fellow artist through ''Taiheiyō.'' They married in 1953. Around the same time, Chizuko-san moved from painting to woodblock printing as her primary artistic medium.''<ref name=":0" />'' In the late 1950s, Chizuko-san began to travel around the world with Hodaka and Fujio. These trips would provide inspiration for her woodblock prints, incorporating colors and forms seen abroad into her work.
Chizuko became member of the Japanese Print Association in 1954.
In 1956, Chizuko co-founded ''Joryū Hanga Kyōkai'' ({{Translation|Women's Print Association|i=yes}}) with eight other professional female printmakers, including Minami Keiko, Iwami Reika, Enokido Maki, Shishido Tokuko, and Kobayashi Donge.''<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />''
The scale of Chizuko's work increased in the early 1960s. These prints contained massive architectural forms and incorporated Japanese calligraphic elements. Around this time, she also started to experiment with embossing the prints, which added visual depth to the works.''<ref name=":0" />''
In 1969 Chizuko won a prize at the International Print Triennial for her piece, ''Star, Star, Star A.''
The use of embossing would carry into Chizuko's work in the 1970s and was used to create pseudo-optical illusions within the prints. In the early 1970s, Hodaka began incorporating zinc plates, allowing for the use of more photographic images in his work. Chizuko would follow suit, gathering images from magazines and layering them with her woodblock prints. This method was used to create Chizuko-san's ''Reef'' series, based on her experience of seeing the Great Barrier Reef from an airplane while flying to Australia.
== Work == Her woodblock prints range from geometric abstraction to 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.
== Collections and exhibitions == Her work was exhibited at the College Women's Association of Japan from its beginning in 1956 and in the annual Contemporary Women's Exhibition in Ueno Museum from 1987 onwards. She was invited to exhibit in many international art and print biennials.
In 2014, Chizuko was part of the exhibit "Breaking Barriers: Japanese Women and Print Artists 1950-2000" at the Portland Art Museum.<ref name=":0" /> From September 27, 2025 – January 4, 2026, the Portland Art Museum mounted the first major museum retrospective of Chizuko’s work.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Yoshida Chizuko |url=https://portlandartmuseum.org/event/yoshida-chizuko/ |access-date=2025-09-22 |website=Portland Art Museum |language=en-US}}</ref>
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,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.artic.edu/collection|title=Yoshida Chizuko|website=The Art Institute of Chicago|language=en|access-date=2019-03-09}}</ref> Philadelphia Museum of Modern Art, the Tokyo International Museum of Modern Art, and the ''Minneapolis Institute of Art''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://collections.artsmia.org/search/yoshida%20chizuko|title=Yoshida Chizuko {{!}} Minneapolis Institute of Art|last=|first=|date=|website=collections.artsmia.org|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-03-09}}</ref>
== Personal life and death == Chizuko met Hodaka Yoshida when attending Onchi Kōshirō’s art seminar together. They married in June 1953 and had two children, Ayomi, a printmaker, and Takasuke, a jewelry artist.
Chizuko passed away from natural causes on April 1, 2017.<ref name=":0" />
==References==
=== Notes === <references />
=== Books === *''Catalogue of Collections'', Yokohama Museum of Art, Vol. I, 1989 * Allen, et al., ''A Japanese Legacy: Four Generations of Yoshida Family Artists'', 2002, Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
== External links == *[http://www.myjapanesehanga.com/home/artists/chizuko-yoshida Chizuko Yoshida] in "The Lavenberg Collection of Japanese Prints" *"[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_7LaVRP_j4 Chizuko Yoshida and Her Peers: Women Printmakers in Japan]," Lecture at the Portland Art Museum by Chizuko's daughter and artist, Ayomi Yoshida
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Yoshida, Chizuko}} Category:1924 births Category:2017 deaths Category:20th-century Japanese painters Category:21st-century Japanese painters Category:20th-century Japanese printmakers Category:21st-century printmakers Category:Women printmakers Category:Artists from Yokohama Category:20th-century Japanese women painters Category:21st-century Japanese women painters