Yoshitoshi - Katsuma Gengobei Reading A Blood-stained Letter

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

#4 in the series: 'Eimei nijūhasshūku (英名 二十八 衆句 - 28 Famous Murders with Verse)', of which Yoshitoshi produced half, with Yoshiiku (1833-1904) being responsible for the others. Note the bloody head wrapped in cloth on the table.

The print shows Gengobei reading Kikuno's letter, after he's killed Kikuno, which reveals her true feelings for him. Based on an actual event from 1737 and enacted in the play "Godainki (kai no fujime) or the Courtesans Curse. 

The series contains illustrations of events which often have a historical background, and were usually well-known from kabuki and noh plays. The series contains text by what is claimed to be ten different writers.

It dates from quite early in Yoshitoshi's career, when he was about twenty-seven, two decades before his well-known masterpieces such as his great series "One Hundred Aspects of the Moon" (1885-1892), and "New Forms of Thirty-Six Ghosts" (often called simply "Thirty-Six Ghosts") (1889-1892).

Date: 1867

Publisher: Sano-ya Tomigorō (Kinseidō)

Condition: Backed on paper. Very good color and impression.

http://www.yoshitoshi.net/series/murders.html