Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年) (artist 04/30/1839 – 06/09/1892)
Muraoka (村岡) from the series Stories About The People In Recent Times (Kinsei Jinbutsu Shi - 近世人物誌) - from Yamamoto Newspaper Supplement (やまと新聞附録)
1887
Signed: Yoshitoshi (芳年)
Date: Meiji 20, 11th month, 13th day
明治廿年十一月十三日
Carver: 彫工國活
Hagi Uragami Museum of Art
National Diet Library
Waseda University
Ritsumeikan - in b & w
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Tokyo Metropolitan Library
University of Tokyo Library
Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery
Centre Céramique de Maastricht
Lyon Collection - another print from this series: Nakamura Shikan's wife
Lyon Collection - another print from this series: the wrestler Tanafuji Tarō
Lyon Collection - another print from this series: wife of the last shōgun
Lyon Collection - another print from this series: Kawase This print appeared as an insert into a newspaper on November 13, 1887. There are at least 20 prints in this series of which the Lyon Collection owns five.
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Muroaka was a head mistress of House of Konoe (近衛家の老女村岡) who actively advocated against the government. This print was insert No. 14.
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The text reads: やまと新聞附録第十四 近衛家の老女村岡 近衛家の老女村岡ハ,〓概の婦人なり、夙に朝威の振はざるを嘆きて恢復の志しあり安政五年幕府勅許を俟たずして外国と條約を結びしより近衛左府、鷹司右府、一條内府、三條前内府、二條〓相して、内勅？_ﾋ黄門へ賜るの挙あり、村岡また其事に与かって力ありしといふ、偶々将軍温恭公甍ず、鷹司家の士小林民部水戸の臣安嶋帯刀と謀り、一橋形部卿を幕府に入れ以て攘夷の挙を実行せんと謀る事露ハる、時の大老井伊直弼、其臣長野主膳を京都に遣はし、朝紳及び在京の儒生等十数lを捕へて江戸に〓送す、岡村また其中に在り、世にこれを安政戌午の獄と言ふ、斯くて村岡ハ日々糾問を受たけれども更に屈する色なく滔々幕政の失を陳じて、幕吏の心を寒からしめしとかや、女丈夫と云ふべし
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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. 84, #55.
2) In color in a full-page reproduction in Yoshitoshi: The Splendid Decadent by Shinichi Segi, Kodansha International, Ltd., 1985, page 57.
3) In color in 原色浮世絵大百科事典 (Genshoku Ukiyoe Daihyakka Jiten), vol. 9, p. 80.
4) in color in Beauty & Desire in Edo Period Japan by Gary Hickey, National Gallery of Australia, 1998, fig. 36, p. 41.
5) in color in Yoshitoshi's Women: The Woodblock Print Series "Fuzoku Sanjuniso" by John Stevenson, Avery Press, 1986, page 15.
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The Scripps College curatorial file say:
"Edo period color woodblock print with an image of a woman, bound, with hair in her mouth. Over the two-year period from 1887 to 1888, Yoshitoshi produced his last and most accomplished set of "newspaper prints" as supplements to the Yamato newspaper. Muraoka (1786-1873) was a supporter of the loyalist faction that disagreed with the shogunate's new open-door policy. She was arrested and severely tortured in 1858 during the Ansei Purge. Her unbroken loyalty won her considerable acclaim once the shogunate fell. However, Yoshitoshi's depiction of Muraoka borders on sadomasochistic fantasy: bound with ropes she looks seductive rather than distressed, and she looks far younger than the seventy-or-more years she would have been at the time."
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There had been a prohibition against portraying contemporary events prior to the Meiji Restorations. However, in the 1870s newspapers began to appear with some degree of impunity. Sarah E. Thompson noted in Undercurrents in the Floating World: Censorship and Japanese Prints on page 88 that a special kind of nishiki-e known as 'newspaper prints' also began to appear. "Although these prints derived their content from the newspapers, they were printed and sold separately. They may sometimes have been used as color supplements for the "small" newspapers aimed at a popular audience. A typical "newspaper print" included a logo with the name of the newspaper, a text derived from a recent article, and an artist's imaginary rendition of the scene. The articles selected for illustration were often tales of exemplary moral behavior, but they also included lurid crime scenes and even ghost stories related as factual events."
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Shinichi Segi wrote on page 154 in Yoshitoshi: The Splendid Decadent: "Also portrays Danjūrō in the Personalities of Recent Times series, which the actor much admires. Completes twentieth and final portrait of Personalities of Recent Times series; adds full-color print cover, and has the set bound in book form."
On page 132 Segi wrote: "Over the two-year period from 1887 to 1888, Yoshitoshi produced his last and most accomplished set of "newspaper prints" as irregular supplements to the Yamato Shimbun. The full set of twenty prints... was later bound in one volume, with the additions of a title plate... The series as a whole shows Yoshitoshi's mature style of figuration based on careful drawing from models. The line work is masterful, and the exactingly balanced choice of colors employs the bright, imported aniline dyes sparingly, as points of compositional accent. The subjects were people in the news, and persons who helped shape modern Japan."
On pages 132-133 Segi gave us more specifics about this woman and Yoshitoshi's treatment of the subject. "Muraoka (1786-1873), head lady-in-waiting under nobleman Konoe Tadahiro was yet another supporter of the loyalists faction that became outraged at the shogunate's new open-door foreign policy. Twice arrested, she was brought to Edo along with some forty others and tortured daily in 1858 during what came to be called the "Great Persecution of the Ansei Era" (Ansei no taigoku), and once again in 1863. Her unbroken loyalty under duress won her considerable acclaim once the shogunate fell. Yoshitoshi's depiction of Muraoka, however, borders on sadomasochistic fantasy: she looks quite seductive in her ropes, and far younger than the seventy-some years she would have been at the time, even with her teeth blackened and eyebrows shaved in the manner of older married women."
Meiji era (明治時代: 1868-1912) (genre)
Historical - Social - Ephemera (genre)