Yoshitoshi - The Last Spring of the Ice

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

The young sheep, Saisei Shunpei, discovers his father brutally imprisoned by the Chinese. From the series Twenty-four Accomplishments in Imperial Japan (Kôkoku nijûshi kô) ( 皇國 二十四 功 -). It consists of images of various people (mostly samurai) who played notable roles in Japanese history.

It dates from towards the end of Yoshitoshi's career, when he was about forty-two. The series was very popular while Yoshitoshi was alive, and it went through numerous printings. Several different states may be seen of these early printings (all with a red title cartouche); in some (perhaps the earliest, since it was the most work to produce) the text panel has several inclined bokashi stripes across it; in others (perhaps later), a simple band of bokashi at the top and bottom; and in others, no decoration at all.

The entire set was posthumously re-published between 1893 and 1895 by Matsuki Heikichi; paler colours were used, and some block changes were made. The easiest tell-tale for the second publishing is that the title cartouche is no longer red, but grey. The most significant change in most of the prints in that edition was the alteration of the signature: in all of them, the entire signature cartouche was removed, and replaced with a facsimile of the signature Yoshitoshi used toward the end of his life, along with a seal from that period.

Publisher: Tsuda Genshichi

Date: 1887

Condition: Very good impression and color. Right border is cropped, backed with newspaper.

Genre: Ukiyo-e

Medium: Woodblock Print

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