Joichi Hoshi (Japanese), Blue Tree Top, Woodblock, signed lower right

 Joichi Hoshi (1911 - 1979) Blue Tree Top woodblock print with gold pigment, signed lower right and dated 1973.  This is a fine example of the artists genre.

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Joichi Hoshi was born in Niigata, Japan in 1913. He worked as a teacher in Taiwan for 13 years. However, at the end of world war II the Japanese occupation of Taiwan ended and Joichi Hoshi returned to Japan in 1946 to study oil painting at Musashino College of Fine Arts where he graduated in 1956.

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Later he taught himself woodblock printmaking. His later tree prints offer an intricate and elaborate level of technical craftsmanship with the application of real gold or silver pigments.

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Joichi Hoshi's international reputation began with his participation in several of the prestigious International Print Biennials of the 1950s and 1960s. He exhibited at the Tokyo International Print Biennials of 1959, 1961 and 1963 and at the International Print Biennial of Sao Paulo (Brazil) in 1967.

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In the early 1970s the artist began to specialize in images of trees and this is what he is now most recognised for.