Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年) (artist 04/30/1839 – 06/09/1892)

Picture of Watanabe no Tsuna [渡邉綱] cutting off the demon Ibaraki's arm at the Rashōmon [Gate] Rashōmon Watanabe no Tsuna oniudekiri no zu - 羅城門渡辺綱鬼腕斬之図

Print

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Date:1888
Dimensions:9.375 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: ōju Yoshitoshi (應需芳年)
Artist's seal: Taiso
Links Lyon Collection - another example of this diptych
Hagi Uragami Museum of Art
Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco
International Research Center for Japanese Studies
Japan Arts Council
Tokyo National Museum - shown upside down
National Diet Library
Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Köln
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München Description:In this scene Watanabe no Tsuna, on horseback, is carrying a sign which reads kinsatsu, 'prohibited.' A demon had been terrorizing people near the Rashōmon gate. Up to this point no one had been bold enough to confront this monster. Watanabe waited there the whole night to see if the signboard would be effective. In the morning the demon attacked and Watanabe cut off its arm causing the demon to flee.

This image is illustrated in color in Beauty and Violence: Japanese Prints by Yoshitoshi, p. 87.

The kanji on the signboard appear to read 禁札, kinsatsu, which can be translated as a 'signboard bearing a prohibition notice'.

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Illustrated:

1) In color in The World of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (Tsukioka Yoshitoshi no Sekai - 月岡芳年の世界) by Susugu Yoshida, p. 33, #16.

2) In black and white in a one-half-page reproduction in Yoshitoshi: The Splendid Decadant by Shinichi Segi, p. 73.

3) In black and white in Chimi moryō no sekai : Ukiyoe : Edo no gekiga--reikai, makai no shujinkō-tachi (浮世絵魑魅魍魎の世界: 江戶の劇画 : 霊界魔界の主人公たち) by 中右瑛 (Nakau Ei), Ribun Shuppan, Tokyo, 1987, p. 46. [The text is entirely in Japanese.]

4) In black and white in 原色浮世絵大百科事典 (Genshoku Ukiyoe Daihyakka Jiten), vol. 4, p. 142, #422.

5) in color in Japanese Yōkai and Other Supernatural Beings: Authentic Paintings and Prints of 100 Ghosts, Demons, Monsters and Magicians by Andreas Marks, Tuttle Publishing, 2023, p. 216.

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This image may originally have been published by Matsui Eikichi and later possibly re-published by Hasegawa Tsunejirō.

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There is another copy of this composition at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.
Related entities warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)
Kakemono-e - 掛物絵 (genre)
Yūrei-zu (幽霊図 - ghosts demons monsters and spirits) (genre)
Matsui Eikichi (松井栄吉) (publisher)
Shimizuya Tsunejirō (清水屋常次郎) (publisher)
Watanabe no Tsuna (渡邉綱) (role)

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