Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839 - 1892)

This dramatic design depicts the tattooed military captain Rotatsu (Lu Chi Sen) who escaped the death penalty for killing a man in a fit of rage by becoming a monk at a temple. However, he was unable to reform his behaviour and one night staggered back to the temple drunk and due to his formidable strength, accidentally knocked down part of the gate, revealing a large Nio [guardian statue]. He was startled by the looming statue and in his drunken state he attacked it.

Produced in Yoshitoshi's mature period, these very novel designs in the vertical diptych format were described by the Tokyo painter Kaburagi Kiyokata (1878-1973) as "the most polished and absolutely perfect works Yoshitoshi ever did".1

For a comparable impression in the collection of the Waseda University Theatre Museum, go to:
https://enpaku.waseda.ac.jp/db/enpakunishik/results-big.php?shiryo_no=201-4667 (item number 201-4667 - top sheet)
https://enpaku.waseda.ac.jp/db/enpakunishik/results-big.php?shiryo_no=201-4668 (item number 201-4668 - bottom sheet).

For another impression in the collection of The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, go to:
https://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/yoshitoshi/works/P.27-2003_SE.html

1. Shinichi Segi, Yoshitoshi The Splendid Decadent, (Japan, 1985), p. 58