Moon of the Red Cliffs

This engraving is from Tsuki hyakushi (One Hundred Views of the Moon), a collection of 100 nishiki-e (multi-color) woodcuts in ōban format (approx. 25 x 38 cm) by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839–1892). The engravings were published in batches by Akiyama Buemon between 1885 and 1892. They depict the moon accompanying illustrations of Japanese and Chinese anecdotes, historical events and mythology, and scenes from kabuki and nō theater, and even contemporary Tokyo. All woodcuts from the series have in common the presence of the moon in each of the engravings. The author masterfully created the mood using the moon and its poetic and expressive possibilities. Tsukioka Yoshitoshi was an ukiyo-e artist from the school of Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797–1861), active from Bakumatsu (the last years of the shogunate) to the Meiji period. He created a wide range of works, including bijing-ga (paintings of beautiful women), fuzoku-ga (moral paintings), and paintings of historical and literary figures. Completed in the year of his death, this series is highly regarded as the masterpiece of the last years of his life. This was the most successful and to this day the most famous of Yoshitoshi's printed series. Customers were reportedly lining up before dawn to buy each new woodcut in the series. Su Shi (1037–1101) was a Chinese scholar, calligrapher, poet, and statesman of the Song dynasty (960–1279) who often disagreed with his political leaders and was exiled several times. During his first exile (1080–1086), he took some friends on a boat ride to the Red Cliffs on the Yangtze River. He then composed one of the most famous poems in Chinese literature. It was of course not related to Red Cliffs, but was set in the era of the Three Kingdoms (1184–280 BC). In the lower right corner, the author's signature: Yoshitoshi sha, below it a rectangular vermilion seal: Taiso.