Yoshitoshi

A man from Kyushu is waiting for the results of a lawsuit and is detained in Kyoto for three years. Concerned about his wife, he sends his maidservant Yūgiri to let her know he will not be returning until the end of the year. To soothe her, Yūgiri organises implements her mistress can use to pound cloth, a task traditionally done to soften textiles. This is an allusion to a Chinese Tang dynasty poem where the beating of cloth by a wife can be heard by a husband who is far from home. When the wife receives news that her husband will be delayed, she goes mad. He eventually returns to discover she is dead. The moon is shown on the folding screen; a flowering bush clover represents autumn.

An old lady served a high-ranking lord whose disease could only be cured with the blood of children in a certain month. Under a well-lit moon, she went to kill children for their blood. After her lord recovered, she confessed to her deeds and was pardoned. The story varies, sometimes being the blood of pilgrims, other times the blood of travellers. Here, the old lady is shown to be peering around the doorway at a victim, ready to kill. Both Yoshitoshi and his teacher Kuniyoshi, haunted by this scene, used the same motifs in previous works on this theme, such as the rope around the roof, the climbing vine and the woman’s withered breasts.

Semimaru was a blind poet and musician who served the son of Emperor Uda. He was both an historical character and the protagonist in a nō play, Semimaru. When the prince died in 966 he moved to live in the mountains near Kyoto. Here, he is in a remote, dilapidated house, playing a biwa (short-necked lute), which has a design of a crescent moon on it. He is surrounded by wild grasses, and in the foreground are the autumn blossoms of beautiful flowers. Ironically, Semimaru cannot see the beauty of the moon or his poverty stricken surroundings, and all he has left is the splendour of his music.

In 1193 the orphaned Soga brothers, Gorō Tokimune and Jūrō Sukenari, made a surprise attack on the camp of the shogun Minamoto Yoritomo with the intention of avenging the death of their father by killing his murderer Kudō Suketsune. They succeeded, but Jūrō lost his life in the fight with the guards while Gorō was captured and subsequently executed. Their story inspired numerous kabuki plays, and was a favourite subject for Yoshitoshi. Gorō is depicted here before the attack, when his attention was attracted by the call of the hototogisu (Japanese cuckoo). It is believed that the cuckoo calls spirits to the next world. It is a symbol of the transience of life as well as melancholy and loneliness.

A warrior with a giant water-gourd and a sword strapped on his back climbs over a rocky outcrop. In a surprising compositional mode, the huge moon is placed below the figure, highlighting the difficult terrain. The brave samurai depicted is none other than Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–98), the famed warlord known as the Taikō, or ‘Regent’, who unified Japan in the late 16th century. In this scene, Hideyoshi, still a young lieutenant in the army of Oda Nobunaga (1534–82), leads his unit along a difficult route to launch a successful attack on the besieged castle of the Saitō clan on Inaba Mountain. This episode is described in the Taikōki, Hideyoshi’s biography published posthumously in 1626.

Saitō Toshimitsu (1534–82) was the principal retainer of Akechi Mitsuhide (1526–82). Under the light of the full moon, Toshimitsu is inspecting the Kamo River in Kyoto, wearing full armour and holding his chief weapon, the naginata – a long spear with a curved blade. It is 1582 and he is preparing for a revenge attack on the Honnōji Temple where Oda Nobunaga (1534–82), the warlord who was Mitsuhide’s archenemy, had his headquarters. Nobunaga was caught in a trap at the headquarters and killed. Toshimitsu was later captured by Nobunaga’s followers, but escaped and became a monk.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Japan was ravaged by a period of tumultuous civil wars that saw the rise and fall of numerous warlords. Here, the ambitious general Akechi Mitsuhide is ambushed by group of rebellious peasants. Mitsuhide has declared himself ‘shogun’ after assassinating Oda Nobunaga. However, his glory was short-lived as his troupe was defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Nobunaga’s general. Mitsuhide fled, only to be captured and killed by bounty hunters.

The samurai warrior depicted here is Yamanaka Shikanosuke Yukimori, one of the ten heroes of the Amako clan, who served the Lord of Izumo province (today Shimane prefecture) during the 16th-century civil wars. He is shown in full armour, holding a kamayari or ‘sickle-spear’. The crescent shape of the crosspiece of the halberd echoes the moon sickle on his helmet. In Japan the ‘moon of the third day’ (mikazuki) is believed to be a lucky emblem. Yukimori, who was very superstitious, has chosen this motif for his war helmet, hoping for protection and good luck in battles.

The diamond pattern in the figure’s helmet indicates that the warrior depicted in this print is the 16th-century warlord Takeda Shingen. He sits on a golden cloud looking at Mount Fuji across the Miho promontory and steep mountainous coastline. The dreamlike scene and the Miho headland, with its government checkpost, suggest the obstacles to Takeda Shingen’s lifelong quest to unify Japan in the late 16th century.

The print illustrates an important scene in the battle of Mount Tobisu in 1525, when Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, broke the siege at Nagashino Castle and defeated the army of his enemy Takeda Shingen. He was helped by a loyal retainer named Sakai Tadatsugu, who is shown standing on an elevated platform to oversee the attack at dawn. The title cartouche erroneously identifies the warrior here as Toda Hanbei Shigeyuki, another supporter of Ieyasu, who was also known as Toda Tadatsugu. Sakai’s ferocity is revealed through the human skull he used as a personal standard.

Gen’i is the Buddhist name of Maeda Munehisa, a 16th-century priest and astute politician hailing from the powerful Maeda clan, lords of the Kaga domain (today Kanazawa prefecture). Reclining on the veranda of a temple building, Gen’i gazes at the moon, shrouded by clouds, and reflects on how the material world separates the self and the Buddha nature (symbolised by the full moon). The poem in the title expresses his thoughts.

Saitō Kuranosuke was a retainer of the 16th-century warlord Akechi Mitsuhide. In 1582, after Mitsuhide’s forces attacked and killed Oda Nobunaga, the most powerful military leader at the time, they had to flee to escape retribution. Kuranosuke sought refuge at the house of his old nurse in Katada Bay, north-east of Kyoto. He is seen here looking cautiously over his shoulder to see whether he was followed. The straw sandals worn by his horse clearly indicate they are travelling in secrecy. Kuranosuke was eventually found by the enemy’s troupe and executed. His story became famous as the kabuki play Katada ochi (‘Escape to Katada’).