Illustration of the Police Superintendent and his men Receiving Wine (Keishi kakutai e sake tamawaru mono no zu)
Yoshitoshi · September 1877
Yoshitoshi: 1839–1892
Other names (16)
Daiso Yoshitoshi, Gyokuō, Ikkaisai, Ikkaisai Yoshitoshi, Kaisai, Kinzaburō Yoshioka, Owariya Yonejiro, Taiso, Taiso Yoshitoshi, Tsukioka Yonejiro, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Yonejirō Tsukioka, Yoshioka Kinzaburo, Yoshitoshi Daiso, Yoshitoshi Taiso, Yoshitoshi Tsukioka
Biography
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (Japanese: 月岡芳年; also named Taiso Yoshitoshi 大蘇芳年; 30 April 1839 – 9 June 1892) was a Japanese printmaker.
Yoshitoshi has widely been recognized as the last great master of the ukiyo-e genre of woodblock printing and painting. He is also regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras – the last years of Edo period Japan, and the first years of modern Japan following the Meiji Restoration. Like many Japanese, Yoshitoshi was interested in new things from the rest of the world, but over time he became increasingly concerned with the loss of many aspects of traditional Japanese culture, among them traditional woodblock printing.
By the end of his career, Yoshitoshi was in an almost single-handed struggle against time and technology. As he worked on in the old manner, Japan was adopting Western mass reproduction methods like photography and lithography. Nonetheless, in a Japan that was turning away from its own past, he almost singlehandedly managed to push the traditional Japanese woodblock print to a new level, before it effectively died with him.
His life was summed up by John Stevenson:
Yoshitoshi's courage, vision and force of character gave ukiyo-e another generation of life, and illuminated it with one last burst of glory.
Wikipedia contributors. Opening excerpt, formatted for reading. CC BY-SA 4.0. Source revision.
Influenced by
- Utagawa Kuniyoshieditorial inference
Evidence
Wikidata assertion retained for review; its references, if supplied, have not been independently verified. Teaching is recorded separately and does not itself establish artistic influence.
Artworks by year
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Museums & collections
Documented holdings of works attributed to Yoshitoshi. Check the museum’s record for current display information.
- Art Institute of Chicago28 recorded works
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art25 recorded works
- Minneapolis Institute of Art22 recorded works
- musée départemental des arts asiatiques — Nice13 recorded works
- musée des beaux-arts — Menton10 recorded works
- musée départemental Maurice Denis — Saint-Germain-en-Laye1 recorded work
- Ōta Memorial Museum of Art1 recorded work
Art, literature & history