Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年) (artist 04/30/1839 – 06/09/1892)
The Supernatural Beings at Shirazunoyabu in Yawata - 不知薮八幡之実怪
10/1881
27.75 in x 14 in (Overall dimensions) color woodblock print
Signed: ōju Yoshitoshi hitsu
應需芳年筆
Publisher: Maruya Tetsujirō
(Marks 300 - seal closest to 21-032)
Date: Meiji 14 (明治十四年)
Carver: Horikō Ei on the left and Hori Koei (彫小栄) on the right
Philadelphia Museum of Art
National Museum of Asian Art
Google map - Yawata highlighted in red - between Osaka and Kyōto
Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium (via Cultural Japan)
Art Institute of Chicago - left panel
Ibaraki Prefectural Library (in Japanese)
Funabashi City Museum
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Roger Keyes in his 1982 doctoral thesis on Yoshitoshi wrote of this triptych: "In the early days of the Tokugawa shogunate, Kōmon Mitsukuni, the lord of Mito, travelled throughout Japan investigating injustices and misdeeds. One day, he found himself on the edge of an impenetrable forest, and, being a fearless and curious man, he resolved to enter and inspect it. After passing many caves and ravines, he came upon what seemed to be an immortal surrounded by demons of every description, which he supposed to be unquiet spirits of the warriors of the Chiba, Satomi, and Hōjō clans who died in battles. "Be ye ghosts," he cried, "or be ye wild gods of the hidden clans? I report the affairs of men to heaven." Hardly had the words fallen from his mouth, than the demons turned to foxes and badgers, and the scene vanished in a moment before his eyes."
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We have had great difficulty in trying to firmly identifying the carver of these blocks. The Philadelphia Museum of Art says that it was someone called Hori Koei. There was a carver of another series of Yoshitoshi prints produced several years earlier using the same name. It paired beauties with popular restaurants. However, the character for 'kō' differs from the one used here. That is not completely unheard of, but as of now remains unresolved. Yet it should be noted that this is the only case we have found so far with these three characters together - 彫小栄.
The restaurant series from 1878 is called Kōto kaiseki beppin kurabe (皇都 会席 別品 競).
Update: Keyes identified the carvers of this composition: Hori Koei on the right and Hori Ei "segare Tsunejirō" on the left.
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Mito Kōmon Mitsukuni (水戸黄門光国卿) in the lower right trying to control and banish the evil powers of ghosts and demons in Yahata.
By the time Yoshitoshi was working on this composition the restrictions on portraying actual historical figures had been lifted - no matter how fanciful those representations might be. Here Yoshitoshi chose as his main subject Tokugawa Mitsukuni (1628-1700), popularly known as Mito Kōmon. The second daimyō of the Mito domain he left a strong impact on Japanese culture. He was the driving force behind the compilation of the Dai Nihon Shi (History of Great Japan). Although it only covered Japanese history from its origins to the 14th century it had grown to 397 volumes by 1906. "Its structure and moralistic aims he derived from the Chinese dynastic histories, while the inspiration for its grand scope he attributed to a reading of the monumental Chinese historical classic... Records of the Historian [when he was young]." Mitsukuni invited 130 Japanese and Chinese scholars to take part in this project.
"Mitsukuni also gained fame from his effective and benevolent rule of Mito. He successfully stabilized his administration by reinforcing his band of retainers and consolidating his hold over the castle town. He actively promoted paper production, gold mining, horse breeding, and shipbuilding and even sent an expedition to open trade with the Ezo district (now Hokkaidō). His agricultural policies closely accorded with the practices of the Chinese Confucian rulers he emulated. He reduced the annual rice tax... set up famine-relief granaries, and encouraged peasants to study herbal medicine, turn from their unorthodox religions, and practice the virtues of filial piety and chastity. By the time he retired in 1690, however, the domain was experiencing financial difficulties, and concentration of the land in the hands of the rich merchants and powerful farmers had led to the growing impoverishment of the peasantry. Alarmed at what he saw as the corruption of samurai morals, Mitsukuni killed the domain's senior councillor with his own sword as a warning to others to reform.
His reputation as a wise ruler was somewhat tarnished by this incident, but respect for his generally enlightened rule persisted among the people. When the residents of Edo heard of his death they expressed their sorrow with the refrain, 'The world has lost two treasures, the gold mines of Sado and Mitō Komon...).' The popular image of Mitsukuni as the ideal feudal ruler was later reinforced by a mid-19th century account of his fictional travels around the country and by a subsequent version of these tales by an Ōsaka storyteller in the 1890s."
Quoted from: Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, vol. 8, pp.51-52. Entry written by Suzuki Eiichi.
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If you look closely at the skeletal remains of humans at the bottom of the middle sheet you will notice two recently deceased birds. There must be a symbolism here, but what it is we don't know.
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Illustrated in black and white in The Male Journey in Japanese Prints by Roger Keyes, University of California Press, 1989, fig. 240, pp. 174-175. "Mito Kōmon (1628-1700) was a famous magistrate who traveled widely to study social conditions throughout the country firsthand."
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The text reads: 釋の浄念が十五日間迷歩たる八幡の篁の涯ハ見ながら崖底知れぬを異しミ給ふて水戸黄門光國卿世俗の疑惑を解んが為這篁に穿たまへバ経又蹊の幽邃なる洞也洞の深沈なる竦然として肌粟を生じ凄然として面翠を做す行々洞心古廟を得て暗に一個の霊仙に値遇その側傍に怪侍妖嬪あるものハ千葉北条里見の将帥戦没したる魂鬼ならくと思ひしに予は人事を天に奏すといへば是や密家の荒神なりしをヤオレ妖怪ござんなれと拏ば魂散る幻境夢国まんぱちならぬ弓矢八幡義経を湯桶讀してぎつねと誤まり砧を反して狸に通はす戯論と一様に看るなかれ 柳下亭種清 述
Yūrei-zu (幽霊図 - ghosts demons monsters and spirits) (genre)
Maruya Tetsujirō (丸屋銕次郎) (publisher)