Yoshitoshi: Japanese ghost story and Chinese general (Sold)

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

  • Sold.

Artist: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
Title: Japanese ghost story and Chinese general
Series: A Comparison of Strange Stories from Japan and China (Wakan kidan kagami)
Date: 1880

Uncut sheet of two chûban prints comparing a Chinese story top, and a Japanese story, bottom. The story at top shows the Chinese general Shin Shobu with an elephant, probably relating to the “24 Paragons of Filial Piety”. At the bottom we see Urabe Iotake, a retainer of the infamous Raiko. We see an ubume, a type of yokai (ghost) trying to escape from Iotake’s grasp. She is pitiful and has folded wings. They are in a charnel ground, where bodies were thrown in an area of Kyoto along a river. We see a staked out shroud behind them, which would indicate where a body has been disposed of. He is trying to help the creature, but she escapes him and then flies away.

Condition: Excellent impression, color and condition.
Dimensions: ôban 37.5 x 24.5 cm
Publisher: Kodama Matichi
Literature: Keyes 435.1 and 435.2.
Signature: Kaisai Yoshitoshi ga


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