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Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839
-
1892) was the last great master - and one of the great innovative and
creative geniuses - of the
Japanese
woodblock print.
holding back the night
with its increasing brilliance
the summer moon
- -- Yoshitoshi's
death poem
His career spanned two eras - the last years of the old feudal Japan,
and the first years of the new modern Japan. Like many Japanese, while
interested in the new things from the rest of the world, over time he
became increasingly concerned with the loss of many outstanding things
from the traditional Japan, among them the traditional woodblock print.
By the end of his career, Yoshitoshi was in an almost single-handed
struggle against time and technology. As he worked on in the old manner,
Japan was adopting the mass reproduction methods of the West, like
photography and
lithography. Nonetheless, in a Japan that was turning away from its
own past, he almost single-handedly managed to push the traditional
Japanese woodblock print to a new level, before it effectively died with
him.
Biography
He was born in old
Edo, in 1839. His father was a rich merchant who had bought his way
into
samurai status, but Yoshitoshi left home at the age of 3 to live with
his uncle, a son-less pharmacist, who was very fond of his nephew.
Yoshitoshi was originally named Owariya Yonejiro, and was given the
name Yoshitoshi by his master
Kuniyoshi, one of great masters of the Japanese woodblock print, to
whom he was apprenticed at 11, in
1850. Although he was not seen as Kuniyoshi's successor in his
lifetime, he is now recognized as the chief pupil of Kuniyoshi.
Yoshitoshi's first print appeared in
1853, but nothing else appeared for quite some time, perhaps as a
result of the illness of his master Kuniyoshi during his last years.
Although his life was hard after Kuniyoshi's death in
1861, he did manage to produce some work, 44 prints of his being known
from
1862.
His early work is full of extremely graphic violence and death, perhaps
mirroring the lawlessness and violence of the Japan around him, which was
simultaneously going through the breakdown of the feudal system imposed by
the
Tokugawa
shoguns, as well as the impact of the West. During this period his
fame grew, and by
1869 he was regarded as one of the best woodblock artists in Japan.
Shortly thereafter, he ceased to receive commissions, perhaps because
the public were tired of scenes of violence. By
1871, he became severely depressed, and his personal life became one
of great turmoil, which was to continue sporadically until his death. He
lived in appalling conditions with his devoted mistress, Okoto, who sold
off her clothes and possessions to support him. At one point they were
reduced to burning the floor-boards from the house for warmth.
His fortunes started to turn by
1873, when his mood improved, and he started to produce more prints.
Newspapers sprung up in the modernization drive, and Yoshitoshi was hired
to produced prints for one. His financial condition was still precarious,
though, and in 1876, his mistress Okoto, in a gesture of devotion which is
typically Japanese, but hard for us to understand, sold herself to a
brothel to help him.
With the
Satsuma Rebellion of
1877, in which the old feudal order made one last attempt to stop the
new Japan, newspaper circulation soared, and woodblock artists were in
demand, with Yoshitoshi most of all. The prints he did gave him public
recognition, and the money was a help, but it was not until
1882 that he was secure.
In late
1877, he took up with a new mistress, the geisha Oraku; like Okotu,
she sold her clothes and possessions to support him, and when they
separated after a year, she too hired herself out to a brothel.
By this point, the woodblock industry was in severe straits. All the
great woodblock artists of the early part of the century,
Hiroshige,
Kunisada, and
Kuniyoshi, had all died, and the wooblock print as an art form was
dying in the confusion of modernizing Japan. Yoshitoshi insisted on high
standards of production, and helped save it temporarily from degeneracy.
In
1880, he met another woman, a former Geisha with two children,
Sakamaki Taiko. They were married in
1884, and while he continued to philander, her gentle and patient
manner seems to have helped stabilize him.
His last years were among his most productive, with his great series
One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (1885
-
1892), and New Forms of Thirty-Six Ghosts (1889
-
1892), as well as some masterful triptychs of
kabuki theatre actors and scenes.
During this period he also cooperated with his friend, the actor
Danjuro, and others, in an attempt to save some of the traditional
Japanese arts.
In his last years, his mental problems started to recur. In early 1891
he invited friends to a gathering of artists that turned out to be a
delusion. After more symptoms, he was admitted to mental hospital. He
eventually left, in May
1892, but did not return home, instead renting rooms.
He died there three weeks later, on June 9, 1892, from a cerebral
hemorrhage. He was only 53 years old.
Retrospective Observations
During his life, he produced a large number of triptychs, and many
series of prints, many of great merit, including his two best-known,
"Thirty-Six Ghosts" and the "One Hundred Aspects of the Moon". Other
less-common ones are almost equally good, including "Yoshitoshi's Finest
Warriors", "A Collection of Desires", "Eight Elements of Honor" and
"Thirty-Two Aspects of Customs and Manners" (the latter all series of
bijin).
While demand for his prints continued for a few years, eventually
interest in him waned, both in Japan, and around the world. The canonical
view in this period was that the generation of Hiroshige was really the
last of the great woodblock artists, and more traditional collectors
stopped even earlier, at the generation of Utamaro and Toyokuni.
However, starting in the 1970's, interest in him resumed, and
reappraisal of his work has shown the quality, originality and genius of
the best of it, and the degree to which he succeeded in keeping the best
of the old Japanese woodblock print, while pushing the field forward by
incorporating both new ideas from the West, as well as his own
innovations.
His life is best summed up by John Stevenson:
- Yoshitoshi's courage, vision and force of character gave ukiyo-e
another generation of life, and illuminated it with one last burst of
glory.
- -- Yoshitoshi's One Hundred Aspects of the Moon, 1992
His reputation has only continued to grow, both in the West, and among
younger Japanese, and he is now universally recognized as the greatest
Japanese artist of his era.
Print Series
Here is a partial list of his print series, with dates:
- One Hundred Ghost Stories of Japan and China (1865-1866)
- Biographies of Modern Men (1865-1866)
- Twenty-Eight Famous Murders with Verses (1866-1869)
- One Hundred Warriors (1868-1869)
- Biographies of Drunken Valiant Tigers (1874)
- Mirror of Beauties Past and Present (1876)
- Famous Generals of Japan (1876-1882)
- A Collection of Desires (1877)
- Eight Elements of Honor (1878)
- Twenty-Four Hours with the Courtesans of Shimbashi and
Yanagibashi (1880)
- Warriors Trembling with Courage (1883-1886)
- One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (1885-1892)
- Personalities of Recent Times (1886-1888)
- Thirty-Two Aspects of Customs and Manners (1888)
- New Forms of Thirty-Six Ghosts (1889-1892)
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