Hanai Oume, who formerly had been a geisha under other names, was the owner of the Suigetsu restaurant in Tokyo. The night of June 9, 1887, she killed a man named Kamekichi on the banks of the Sumida River and afterward was arrested and charged...
A participant in the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate, after the Meiji Restoration Etō Shinpei was appointed to a number of government posts, including Minister of Justice where he played a part in overhauling Japan's penal code. He resigned...
women; men (male humans); kimonos; interior spaces;
In this charming domestic scene Princess Yohime, daughter of the eleventh Shogun Tokugawa Ienari, is crouched down untying the sandal of her husband; he gazes down at her with tender regard. He sits half in and half out the entrance to a house with...
An image of a woman, bound, with hair in her mouth. Over the two-year period from 1887 to 1888, Yoshitoshi produced his last and most accomplished set of "newspaper prints" as supplements to the Yamato newspaper. Muraoka (1786-1873) was a...
The courtesan Imamurasaki, dressed in festive, long-sleeved robes and a small hat, is depicted dancing to imayo music. Imayo was a popular form of music that originated among the common people, but toward the end of the Heian period was taken up by...
The actor Ichikawa Danjûrô IX as Benkei in the kabuki play Kanjincho. Ichikawa Danjûrô IX (1839-1903) was one of the key figures in the move to modernize Kabuki performance in the Meiji era (1868-1911) and was a friend of Yoshitoshi. The plot...
portrait; men (male humans); kimonos; dog (animal)
The Japanese rebel and statesman Takamori Saigo (1827-1877) was the military leader of the imperial forces against the shogunate leading to the Meiji restoration. His growing discontent with the curtailment of the privileges of the samurai class...
depictions; men (male humans); women; children (people by age group); kimonos; interior spaces; fude; artists' brushes
A man with a handlebar mustache kneels on a red rug drawing irises on paper with an ink brush. A woman holding a towel and wearing a half-dozen hairsticks in her elaborate coiffure stands beside him. A small child sits at her feet stirring...
porches; blinds (coverings); women; men (male humans); children (people by age group); flowers (plants); trees; kimonos; swords
The Heike leader Taira no Kiyomori (1118-1181), at right, stares down at Lady Tokiwa Gozen, whose husband, Minamoto no Yoshitomo (1123-1180), was recently killed. She had fled Kyoto with her three sons, concerned that the Heike forces would kill...
women; temples; porches; Japanese maple; mountains; kimonos; built works; lanterns (lighting devices)
Lady Murasaki Shikibu author of the 11th century novel The Tale of Genji, stands on the verandah of the Buddhist temple at Ishiyama, where she reportedly began writing one of the 54 chapters of her book which documents the lives and loves of three...
women; men (male humans); kimonos; children (people by age group); trees; interior spaces; fusuma; kettles (vessels)
In the kabuki play "Hikosan Gongen Chikai no Sukedachi," Kyôgoku no Takumi kills his master Yoshioka Ichimisai and his master's daughter Okiku. His daughter Osono searches for her father's killer, but he has changed his name and gone into hiding....
flags; men (male humans); military uniforms; ships; rifles (long guns); boats; swords; banners; Built complexes and districts
Following the destruction of the Japanese legation buildings in Seoul and the escape from Incheon of the minister and his staff, the Japanese government decided to retaliate. Hanabusa Yoshimoto was sent back to Korea with 3 warships and several...
