Exhibition
Yoshitoshi
Spirit and Spectacle
The Heian Poet Yasumasa Playing the Flute by Moonlight, Subduing the Bandit Yasusuke with His Music (detail), 1883, by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (Japanese, 1839–92), 1989-47-332a--c
About
Discover the brilliant colors and spirited lines of Yoshitoshi, the last great master of the traditional Japanese woodblock print. Ever inventive in his art, he responded to Japan’s rapid modernization of the late 1800s with greater expressiveness than seen before. His vivid, dynamic imagery served as inspiration for modern-day manga and anime.
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi came of age as an artist as Japan opened to the West after two hundred years of isolation. Navigating both cultural traditions and the upheavals of the modern world, he tackled a wide range of themes: the heroism of samurai warriors, poetic images of figures in nature, female beauty, historic accounts, ghost stories, and the horrors of the battlefield.
This exhibition showcases some seventy works from the museum’s extraordinary collection of Yoshitoshi prints, the largest repository of his work outside Japan.
Collection

Setting Moon: Bandō Hikosaburō as Akechi Mitsuhide
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

Full Tide, Onoe Kikugorō V as Aoyagi Harunosuke
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi



The Demon Omatsu Murders Shirosaburō in the Ford
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi




Mist, Ichikawa Sandaji as Hoshikage Tsuchiemon
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
Curators
Shelley Langdale, The Park Family Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings
Sponsors
This exhibition has been made possible by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation and the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Exhibition Fund.