Taiso Yoshitoshi Art

The Ghost of Seigen Haunting Sakurahime Color woodcut, May 1889 Signed: Yoshitoshi; seal: taiso, lower right (see photo) Plate 5 from the series "New Forms of the Thirty-six Ghosts" Publisher: Sasaki A very fine lifetime impression of the second state (bi-colored cartouche) (see photo) The murdered lover of courtesan Sakurahime appears in the smoke from her brazier Format: Oban Condition: Excellent Image size: 14 3/8 x 9 3/4 inches Reference: Beauty and Violence, Plate 6 Stevenson, "Ghosts", Plate 5 TAISO YOSHITOSHI (1839-1892) Taiso Yoshitoshi was born in the city of Edo (now Tokyo) just before Japan’s violent transformation from a medieval to a modern society. In the mid 19th century pressures from the United States and Europe brought an end to Japan’s two hundred years of self-imposed isolation. In 1868 a pivotal period began known as the Meiji Restoration. It was marked by the return of Imperial power, heightened militarism, a new constitution and industrial advancement, as well as social and political reform. In the midst of shifting values, woodblock print artists like Yoshitoshi struggled to create images that would satisfy the public’s changing tastes. During the Edo period (1600-1868) woodblock prints...

Takeda Daizendayu Harunobu (Nyudo Shingen) Crouching in a Field Color woodcut, 1878 Signed: Oju Yoshitoshi hitsu; Seal: Taiso (See photo) From the series: "A Mirror of Famous General...

Tasty: The Appearance of a Prostitute during the Kaei Era Plate 17 from the series "Thirty-two Aspects of Customs and Manners" (Fuzoku Sanjuniso) Format: Oban Publisher: Tsunashima K...

“Looking capable: the apperance of a Kyoto waitress in the Meiji Era.” (Okigatsuki-so: Meiji nenkan saikyo nakai no fuzoku.) A fixer from a Kyoto geisha house attends to a lantern by...

Signed: Yoshitoshi ga; Seal: Yoshitoshi no in Created: January 1886 Series: 100 Aspects of the Moon Publisher: Akiyama Buemon Provenance: T...

The spirit of the the beauty Sakurahime possessing the priest Seigen. In one version of the popular folk tale, the abbot and the young beauty fall in love, become inseparable, and th...

View of the Death in Battle by Suicide of Katsuyori at Mount Temmoku. (Katsuyori ni oite Temmokuzan toguru uchijini zu). Grim scene of the losing side of a battle, with the remaining...

Famous scene of the feminine Yoshitsune as he meets Benkei on Gojo Bridge in Kyoto. We see a bronze-colored moon rising as Benkei seems to have been thwarted by Yoshitsune throwing h...

A courtesan in Heian period style looks over the prow of her watercraft, looking ahead through the famous torii of Miyajima (Itsukushima) Shrine. She will be dancing in the ceremonies of the annual festival held in Itsukushima in the sixth month of the lunar calendar. Note the ukiyoe style of the beauty and the water, and the Shijo style of the rendering of the torii and the shore. Her enormous traveling hat and veil are placed beside her. From the series "One Hundred Famous Views of the Moon...

Zen-no-jo, a filial child from Shinano Province. Emma, the King of Hell and his minions lean over the young boy and show in a magical mirror his father’s crimes in a former life. The...

Oniwaka (the young Benkei) with his knife drawn behind him and mind filled with revenge, intently stalks the monster carp that devoured his mother. From the series "Thirty-six Ghost...

Yoshitoshi’s masterpiece, “The painting ‘Fujiwara Yasumasa Plays the Flute by Moonlight’, Exhibited at the National Painting Exhibition in the Autumn of 1882”. We see the 10th centur...