Tsukioka Yoshitoshi — From Bloody Prints to the Bridge to the Modern

Yoshitoshi — “The Last Ukiyo-e Master”

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) is the rare painter who started as a disciple of Utagawa Kuniyoshi in the late Edo, then, across the Meiji Restoration, became the first great master of modern Japanese-style painting.

His position in ukiyo-e history:

• “The last ukiyo-e master” — the final generation to inherit the tradition of Edo ukiyo-e
• “The first modern Japanese-style painter” — advanced into newspaper illustration and historical painting in the Meiji era, taking in Western-painting technique
• “The bridge to the Meiji” — connecting the warrior prints of Edo to modern historical painting

Yoshitoshi’s life is itself the era of Japan’s greatest change (1839-1892). It was 53 years: born in the late-Edo Edo, experiencing the chaos of the Meiji Restoration, seeking a new painting amid modernization.

Life — 53 Turbulent Years

Childhood (1839-1850)

• Born on March 17, 1839, at Shinbashi (present-day Minato-ku), Edo
• Real name Yonejirō
• His father was a rice merchant, relatively well off
• Showed painting talent from an early age
• 1850 (age 11), entered under Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Under Kuniyoshi (1850-1861)

• Entered at age 11, given the name Yoshitoshi
• Absorbed the techniques of warrior prints, caricature, and yōkai pictures from Kuniyoshi
• 1853 (age 14), released his first print Bunji Gan’nen Heike Ichimon Kaichū Rakunyū no Zu
• 1861, his teacher Kuniyoshi died. Yoshitoshi becomes independent at 22

A young period of friendly rivalry with Kuniyoshi’s other disciples (Ochiai Yoshiiku, Kawanabe Kyōsai). Yoshitoshi in particular rises to prominence with a direction good at warrior prints and historical painting.

The Bloody-Print Era (1866-1868)

In 1866-1868, amid the political unrest of the late Edo, Yoshitoshi produces the masterpiece series of cruel prints (muzan-e).

Eimei Nijūhasshūku (1866-67)

• A collaboration with Ochiai Yoshiiku (14 each, 28 total)
• Subject was the cruel scenes of Edo kabuki
• Precise description of blood, entrails, and severed heads
• Yoshitoshi’s 14 pieces are especially highly brutal

Examples:

• Fukuoka Mitsugi — a scene holding a severed head
• Inada Kyūzō Shinsuke — a wound in which entrails are visible
• Enjō Kihachirō — a scene where blood spray flies

These are known as the most cruel group of works in ukiyo-e history. Works that combined the violence of the age of the late Edo and the young Yoshitoshi’s experiment in expression.

The Meiji Restoration and Upheaval (1868-1873)

• 1868, Meiji Restoration. Yoshitoshi is 29
• Draws scenes of the Boshin War in the Kaidai Hyakusensō (1868-1869) series — portraits of 100 samurai
• The conventional ukiyo-e market contracted, and Yoshitoshi too struggled financially
• Around 1872-73, hospitalized for neurasthenia
• For a while he could not paint

After the Meiji Restoration, the Edo ukiyo-e world was in the process of dissolution, and Yoshitoshi too suffered in adapting. But from his mid-30s he recovered and sought a new road.

The Newspaper-Illustration Era (1874-1881)

• 1874, became responsible for newspaper illustrations for the Yūbin Hōchi Shinbun, Tōkyō Nichi-Nichi Shinbun, and others
• Reported the incidents, disasters, and scandals of Meiji in pictures
• The illustrated newspaper = a forerunner of modern photographic journalism
• Yoshitoshi was recognized as the leader of newspaper illustration

This is the shift from ukiyo-e to modern media. Yoshitoshi is the first painter to apply Edo techniques to the new reporting medium.

The Historical-Painting / Western-Influence Era (1878-1892)

In the 1880s, Yoshitoshi released independent historical-painting series one after another:

• Dai Nihon Meishō Kagami (1878-82) — biographical pictures of 51 Japanese generals
• Yoshitoshi Musha Burui (1883-86) — warrior pictures
• Fūzoku Sanjūnisō (1888) — 32 kinds of women’s manners
• Shinkei Sanjūrokkaisen (1889-92) — 36 pictures of yōkai and ghosts
• Tsuki Hyakushi (One Hundred Aspects of the Moon) (1885-92) — Yoshitoshi’s greatest masterpiece, 100 pictures on historical and legendary subjects related to the moon

During this period Yoshitoshi:

• Absorbs the shading and perspective of Western painting
• Achieves accurate clothing and armor based on historical research
• Psychological description is precise (expression, gesture)
• Colors are pale and lyrical

A style deeply lyrical and completely opposite to the bloody-prints era. This reflects the maturation of Yoshitoshi’s inner life and the change in Meiji Japan’s historical consciousness.

Death (1892)

• June 9, 1892, died at 53
• Cause of death regarded as cerebral hemorrhage (influence of continued neurasthenia also)
• Grave site at Senpuku-ji in Yanaka, Tokyo

Continued production of Tsuki Hyakushi until just before death, and is said to have drawn the last few pieces from his sickbed. Yoshitoshi’s death effectively symbolizes “the twilight of ukiyo-e.”

Tsuki Hyakushi (1885-1892) — The Greatest Masterpiece

The work most evaluated as Yoshitoshi’s representative masterpiece is Tsuki Hyakushi (One Hundred Aspects of the Moon). All 100 pictures, produced over 7 years.

Subject

• 100 scenes of history, legend, and story related to the moon
• Japanese, Chinese, and Buddhist subjects
• The moon is drawn in each picture (but far and small)
• The subject is the inner feeling of the figure

Representative Works (from the 100 pictures)

Daimotsu no Umi no Tsuki — the Fall of the Taira

• The scene of the ghosts of the Taira appearing on the sea (the sea of Minamoto no Yoshitsune)
• Waves and ghosts under moonlight
• Yūgen and lyricism

Suzakumon no Tsuki — a Heian Yōkai Tale

• Hakuga Sanmi playing the flute at Suzakumon of Heian, and a demon
• Moonlit night and the music of pipes and strings
• One of the peaks of Yoshitoshi’s yōkai pictures

Tsuki Hyakushi: Gyokuto — Son Goku — Xi You Ji

• The Chinese Sun Wukong confronting the moon rabbit (gyokuto)
• Also includes Chinese subjects
• Trying Western shading

Sotoba no Tsuki — Nō Drama

• The Nō play Sotoba Komachi — the aged Ono no Komachi views the moon on a sotoba (memorial tablet)
• Loneliness of an aged woman and the moon
• The peak of Yoshitoshi’s lyricism

Technical Features

• Heavy use of light ink and soft colors, avoiding gaudy color
• Precise facial expressions, from which one can read the inner life
• Exquisite distance between moon and figure
• Blend of Japanese and Western — modest introduction of perspective and shading

Evaluation

Tsuki Hyakushi received high evaluation even in his lifetime:

• In 1892, after Yoshitoshi’s death, sequels and successors appear
• Also exported to early-20th-century Europe, part of Japonisme
• Modern scholarship evaluates it as “the peak of Meiji ukiyo-e”
• All volumes are held at the British Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Metropolitan Museum, etc.

Yoshitoshi’s Disciples

Yoshitoshi raised many disciples, connecting to Japanese-style painting of the Meiji-Shōwa era:

• Mizuno Toshikata (1866-1908) — direct disciple of Yoshitoshi, Meiji genre painting
• Kaburaki Kiyokata (1878-1972) — disciple of Mizuno Toshikata, great master of Taishō-Shōwa Japanese-style painting
• Itō Shinsui (1898-1972) — disciple of Kaburaki Kiyokata, master of shin-hanga
• Yamakawa Shūhō, and others

That is, the lineage Yoshitoshi → Mizuno Toshikata → Kaburaki Kiyokata → Itō Shinsui becomes the mainstream of 20th-century Japanese-style painting and shin-hanga. Yoshitoshi is also positioned as “the ancestor of modern Japanese-style painting.”

Yoshitoshi and Social Unease

Yoshitoshi’s works are closely tied to the social unrest of the late-Edo to Meiji era:

Late-Edo Cruel Prints

• The 1866-68 bloody prints are a premonition of violence on the eve of the Boshin War
• Aspect of representing the destructive desire of the Edo populace
• Reflection of the instability of the young Yoshitoshi’s (late 20s) inner life

Early Meiji Chaos

• Record of the Boshin War (Kaidai Hyakusensō) — includes sympathy for the losing side
• Hospitalization for neurasthenia (1872-73) — Yoshitoshi himself could not endure the era’s violent change
• Recovered through newspaper illustration

Middle-Meiji Historical Painting

• Historical paintings from 1878 — heroes and generals of the past as subjects
• In step with the Meiji government’s reconstruction of “Japanese tradition”
• Yoshitoshi’s historical paintings contribute to the formation of Meiji national consciousness

Yoshitoshi vs. Kuniyoshi and Hokusai

Comparison of the three generations of painters:

Element	Hokusai (1760-1849)	Kuniyoshi (1798-1861)	Yoshitoshi (1839-1892)
Generation	Mid-Late Edo	Late Edo-Bakumatsu	Bakumatsu-Meiji
Main genre	Landscape, picture handbook	Warrior prints, caricature	Bloody prints, historical painting
Turning point	Fugaku Sanjūrokkei at 70	Suikoden at 30	Cruel prints in 20s, historical paintings in 40s
Disciples	Issai, Ōi, etc.	Yoshitoshi, Kyōsai, etc.	Mizuno Toshikata, Kaburaki Kiyokata, etc.
Response to era	Completed within Edo	Bakumatsu unease as caricature	Straddling Meiji Restoration

Yoshitoshi is the painter most directly hit by the violent change of the era. Over his life, his style changes greatly three times (cruel prints → newspaper illustration → historical painting / Tsuki Hyakushi). This is a feature no other painter has.

“The Twilight of Ukiyo-e” and Yoshitoshi

Yoshitoshi’s death (1892) effectively symbolizes the end of Edo ukiyo-e:

• Meiji printing technologies (lithography, photo-mechanical printing) drove out prints
• Newspapers, magazines, photographs replaced the informational function of ukiyo-e
• Picture-book shops disappear from the streets
• Demand for nishiki-e artisans (engravers, printers) crashed

Within 10 years of Yoshitoshi’s death, the Edo ukiyo-e production system completely vanished. His disciples shift to Japanese-style painting and shin-hanga.

Modern Evaluation of Yoshitoshi

20th Century — Shunned as “the Painter of Cruel Prints”

In the first half of the 20th century, Yoshitoshi’s bloody prints were considered vulgar, and shunned by the scholarly world. Not included in textbooks.

Second Half of the 20th Century — Re-evaluation Begins

• 1970s, American Japanese-art researchers such as John Stevenson re-evaluate Yoshitoshi
• English-language studies advance with Yoshitoshi’s Warriors (1992) etc.
• Tsuki Hyakushi is re-recognized as the peak of Meiji ukiyo-e

21st Century — Horror and Weird Boom

• Yōkai pictures from Shinkei Sanjūrokkaisen spread on SNS
• Re-evaluated as the ancestor of horror manga and anime
• Yoshitoshi exhibitions held repeatedly at Edo-Tokyo Museum, Ōta Memorial Museum of Art, etc.
• Around 2020, books and exhibitions of “Yoshitoshi re-evaluation” increase

From the modern viewpoint, Yoshitoshi is:

• A bridge from Edo to the modern
• The two poles of bloody prints and lyrical painting
• “The Japanese Aubrey Beardsley” (a comparison to the British fin-de-siècle painter)
• One of the far ancestors of modern manga and anime

Yoshitoshi and Modern Japanese Visual Culture

Yoshitoshi’s influence reaches to today:

The Bloody-Print Lineage

• The style of Maruo Suehiro (manga artist)
• The yōkai expression of Itō Junji (horror manga)
• The visuals of the curses in Jujutsu Kaisen

The Lyrical Painting Lineage

• Through Kaburaki Kiyokata → Itō Shinsui, to the bijin-ga of Shōwa
• A distant ancestor of the modern anime bishōjo expression

The Yōkai-Painting Lineage

• Mizuki Shigeru’s yōkai
• The yōkai of Demon Slayer
• The curses of Jujutsu Kaisen

Yoshitoshi is one of the far ancestors of the pictures of modern Japanese horror, yōkai, and bishōjo.

From This Article to the Next

Yoshitoshi in the early Meiji was “the last ukiyo-e master,” but entering the 20th century, an attempt at regenerating ukiyo-e — the shin-hanga movement — begins. Centered on Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) and Hashiguchi Goyō (1881-1921), and led by the publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō, the next article traces the 20th-century print movement that revived the division of labor of “painter, engraver, and printer.”