Supper Wagon - Toshi Yoshida

Artist
Tōshi Yoshida (1911–1995)

Title
Supper Wagon (Yataimise)

Series
Tokyo at Night (Yoru no Tokyo)

Design Date
1938 (Shōwa 13) - posthumous print, date unknown

Medium
Original Japanese color woodblock print

Format
Chūban yoko-e (horizontal format)

Paper Size
Approximately 7.5 × 10.625 inches

Description

This original Japanese woodblock print was designed by Tōshi Yoshida in 1938 as part of his early Tokyo at Nightseries. The design is held in the collections of both the Fukuoka Art Museum and Edo-Tokyo Museum.

Supper Wagon captures a quiet Tokyo street at night, where customers gather around brightly curtained food stalls selling inexpensive dishes such as sushi, beef, udon, tonkatsu, and sake. A woman carrying a child pauses nearby while a dog waits beside one of the stalls. Yoshida uses muted blues, grays, and warm yellows to capture the subdued glow of the shops after dark. Rather than depicting Tokyo as a grand modern metropolis, he focuses on an ordinary neighborhood moment—the small restaurants, street vendors, and people that gave the city its character.

Translation & Inscriptions

• Series: Tokyo at Night (Yoru no Tokyo)
• Title: Supper Wagon
• Design Date: Shōwa 13 (昭和十三年) — 1938
• Signature: Block-signed “Toshi Yoshida” in English in the lower right margin
• English Title: “Supper Waggon,” block-printed in the lower left margin
• Artist Seal: Yoshida (吉田), lower right within the image

Condition

Very Good. Full margins with light overall toning consistent with age. Minor scattered foxing and surface soiling are visible in the margins, with light handling wear. Colors remain strong and well preserved. Block-printed title and artist signature remain clearly visible in the lower margin. 

About the Artist

Tōshi Yoshida (1911–1995) was a major twentieth-century Japanese woodblock artist and the eldest son of renowned shin-hanga master Hiroshi Yoshida. Trained within the Yoshida family's printmaking tradition, Tōshi began producing woodblocks at an early age and developed a career that bridged the shin-hanga movement of his father's generation with the increasingly experimental Japanese printmaking of the postwar period. His work ranged from atmospheric Japanese landscapes and city scenes to abstract compositions and highly detailed images of wildlife. Although inevitably influenced by his famous father, Tōshi ultimately developed an independent style and became an important printmaker in his own right.

Supper Wagon, created in 1938 when Tōshi was only 27, shows his early interest in depicting contemporary urban Japan rather than the monumental landscapes for which his father was best known. The nighttime setting, subdued palette, artificial light, and intimate street-level viewpoint connect the print to the shin-hanga tradition while giving it a distinctly modern character.