women; children (people by age group); Single Built Works; trees; banners; kimonos; sandals
A mother carries her son on her back "horse riding" / uma nori - piggy back- style while her daughter entertains him with some hand puppets of a fox woman and samurai. The inset shows the Inari Shrine at Oji, one of the oldest Shinto sites in the...
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...
A woman, in a flower-covered red robe, dances, surrounded by small flames. Princess Yaegaki found herself in as difficult a situation as Romeo and Juliet, with whom this story from the play Honcho Nijushiko, or Twenty-four Examples of Filial Piety,...
Although a trusted retainer of the warlord Oda Nobunaga (1510-1551), Akechi Mitsuhide (1528-1582) was enraged when Nobunaga murdered his mother. Mitsuhide attacked Nobunaga at the Kyoto temple of Honno-ji, setting it afire. Nobunaga reportedly...
legends (folk tales); men (male humans); armor (protective wear); Buddhas
An armored samurai is wrestling a red demon and multitude of skeletons under the gaze of a grinning yellow Buddha. Toki Motosada has seized the demon by the wrist and is throwing it down. Moths flutter around them under a full moon.
Where...
An image of a beautiful woman and an old crone with a lamp made of peony flowers. The Peony Lantern is a ghostly romance adapted from an old Chinese tale by the novelist Encho in 1884. The chilling story was extremely popular and was dramatized...
Back to back print. A man in a blue kimono and hakama stands and reaches for his sword at his side, while a woman in voluminous robes lies at his feet on the ground.
Kusunoki Masatsura (1326-1348) was one of those samurai doomed to a brief life...
Back to back print. A man in a blue robe and a black samurai hat stands holding a fan; a younger man in a red kimono and holding a sword sits at his feet. Behind them is a screen painted with crane, and through an open doorway one can see a stone...
depictions; men (male humans); warriors; boats; robes (main garments); hats
Back to back print. In 1331, the Hojo clan exiled the Emperor Go-Daigo to Oki Island. In 1333 Go-Daigo escaped Oki in a fishing boat, landing eventually in Katami. Its lord, Nawa-no-Nagashige, was an adherent to the Imperial cause, who cordially...
Back to back print. The faithful maid Ohatsu stands before a torn umbrella wiping Iwafuji's blood from a sword with a sandal. Her plain checked kimono indicates her lowly status. A flowering cherry tree frames the image; its petals drift down over...
legends (folk tales); men (male humans); caves; bats (animals)
Back to back print. Yoshitoshi here depicts an incident in which the 12th-century samurai Nitta Shirō Tadatsune discovered a mysterious cave on Mt. Fuji. While his companions were afraid to enter, the samurai seized a torch and entered the...
Four of the great Meiji Period kabuki actors are represented in this triptych. Nakamura Shikan IV (1830-1899) in the role of Takeda Shingen (1521-1573) is at far right, next to Ichikawa Danjuro IX (1839-1903) playing the part of Rakuganji...
If the "Mirror of the Ages" series is viewed chronologically, perhaps in an album format, the costumes prior to the Tenna era are quite elaborately decorated with various colors, patterns and techniques, which make the 2 images representing the...
In an abstract space, a woman sits with her kitten next to a sewing box. She holds a ruler and has a bolt of cloth on her lap. This scene seems timeless and quite tranquil, although her attention is attracted to someone or something outside the...
legends (folk tales); men (male humans); women; bats (animals); dresses (garments); bell (idiophone); edged weapons; armor (protective wear)
In the top panel two bats, one carrying an umbrella and a scarf and the other two swords, parody Act V from the play Chushingura, the murder of Yoichibei by Sadakuro during a thunderstorm. In the lower half, the monk Anchin hides in a bell to...
group portrait; women; children (people by age group); swords; kimonos; men (male humans); snowstorms
Lady Tokiwa was a Japanese noblewoman of the late Heian period. A concubine or wife to Minamoto no Yoshitomo, she bore him three sons, one of whom became the great samurai general Minamoto no Yoshitsune. After Yoshitomo's death in 1160, she fled...
Martial arts was certainly expected of the men in samurai families, but women drawn from those families to the shogun's Inner Palace would also be familiar with handling weapons. During the Edo Period, use of the halberd / naginata was particularly...
Miyagino and Shinobu, whose whose farmer father was murdered by the samurai Shiga, swore to avenge his death. In secret they trained themselves in the martial arts. They then went to the local daimyo and challenged Shiga to a duel, killing him in...
Modern and traditional ships pass by a mountain range at sea. In a vertical composition, Yoshitoshi updates the horizontal print by Hiroshige. A paddlewheel steamship plows through the waters at Maisaka as a traditional samurai views the future of...
men (male humans); soldiers; trees; military uniforms; halberds; swords; flags; cannons (artillery); ships; shores (landforms); fans (costume accessories); chairs
On the shores of Kagoshima Bay, where an imperial navy ship steams toward Sakurajima, Saigo Takamori (1827-1877) stands before a captured cannon wearing his Western style officer's uniform. To the right of Saigo is Kirino Toshiaki (1838-1877)...
