Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, "Moonlight Patrol"

Shielding his gaze from the full moon’s brilliant light, Saito Toshimitsu, Akechi Mitsuhide’s most loyal retainer, scans the horizon as he follows his lord toward Honnoji Temple in Kyoto. It was at Honnoji that Mitsuhide betrayed his alliance with Oda Nobunaga, launching a surprise attack that would become one of the most consequential episodes of Japan’s Sengoku-period civil wars in the late 16th century. This design from Yoshitoshi’s One Hundred Aspects of the Moon is cinematic in its composition, capturing the tension of an impending attack against a tranquil landscape. A marvelous and popular design.

Series: One-Hundred Aspects of the Moon
Date: 1885
Size: Oban
Publisher: Akiyama Buemon
Condition: Some loss to right edge of paper, otherwise very good color and condition with large margins, unbacked
Frame Shown: 16" x 24" x 1/2", Modern Metal, Walnut

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) was a master painter and woodblock print artist whose works have made an indelible mark on Japanese art and design to this day. His most famous series, "One Hundred Aspects of the Moon," comprise some of Yoshitoshi's best known designs.