Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
I must confess, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's woodblocks are my recent discovery and fascination. Yoshitoshi has widely been recognized as the last great master of the ukiyo-e genre of woodblock printing and painting. He is also regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. Today we present a print created for the One Hundred Aspects of the Moon series. It shows a dramatic story!
The evil Kō no Moronao (visible in the upper left) became aware of the extraordinary beauty of Kaoyo Gozen, wife of a shogunal officer, and arranged to see the woman after a bath. Even though Kaoyo was without splendid robes and make-up in that situation, Moronao found her to be irresistible. Trying to take her for himself, Moronao did not hesitate to organize a plot against Kaoyo's husband to get rid of him. Unfortunately, it was a huge miscalculation and led to the death of Kaoyo as well.
Have a great new week!
P.S. Yoshitoshi also designed many muzan-e, the so called "bloody prints." They really look like scenes from horror movies, check them out here!