Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年) (artist 04/30/1839 – 06/09/1892)
Aoyagi Harunosuke (青柳春之助) avenging his father's death from the series Sagas of Beauty and Bravery (Biyū Suikoden - 美勇水滸伝)
10/1866
7 in x 9.25 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Gyokuō Yoshitoshi hitsu
玉櫻芳年筆
Publisher: Ōmiya Kyūjirō (Marks 415 - seal 30-034)
Combined date and aratame censor seal: 10/1866
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Marega Collection, Universita Pontificia Salesiana
Database of Folklore Illustrations
Bibliothèque nationale de France - #35 in an album
National Gallery of Victoria
Harn Museum of Art
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München "The chūban prints from this series were printed two to a block and then cut... The production of the set lasted from 4/1866-4/1867. Once completed, it was issued with an unsigned, undated title page and a contents page that itemised all fifty prints, with the signature Ikkaisai Yoshitoshi ga (picture by Ikkaisai Yoshitoshi) and the name of Kanagaki Robun in the left margin."
Quoted from: Yoshitoshi: Masterpieces from the Ed Freis Collection, page 85. The authors note that there appears to be a later edition where the publisher's seal has been left blank.
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The text reads: 菊池家の小姓実ハ漢士の海賊七草官丁禮（しちそうかんていれい）の一子七草四郎年正也肥前国鐘の岬の海底にて父の霊て出會夫より菊池家て仇せんと企しとぞ
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There are 8 other images from this series in the Lyon Collection (#s 404, 1076, 1104, 1155, 1156, 1157, 1188 and 1189), plus the frontispiece (#1191) and title page (#1190).
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Illustrated:
1) This specific print is illustrated in color in Japanese Woodblock Print Workshop: A Modern Guide to the Ancient Art of Mokuhanga by April Vollmer, Watson-Guptill, 2015, n.p.
2) in a small black and white reproduction in Beauty & Violence: Japanese Prints by Yoshitoshi 1839-1892 in an introduction by John Stevenson, with Eric van den Ing and Robert Schaap, Society for Japanese Arts, 1992, fig. 4, p. 12. Stevenson wrote about this series: "In the following year he produced a lively interpretation of the heroes of the Suikoden ('Tales of the water margin')... Yoshitoshi was already designing imaginative prints that were different from any others being produced at this time."
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While we can't be sure, but there appear to be flames under the water, similar to the free-floating flames to be found in so many other Japanese woodblock prints. Perhaps these 'flames' represent the spirit of Aoyagi Harunosuke's murdered father. Such flames are referred to as shinka 神火, or a kind of sacred or soul flame, usually of a vengeful spirit that hasn't been able to cross over to 'the otherworld'.
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There is another copy of this print in the Worcester Art Museum.
Ōmiya Kyūjirō (近江屋久次郎) (publisher)
warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)
Suikoden (水滸傳) (genre)
Kanagaki Robun (仮名垣魯文) (author)