Your art history post for today: by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892), The Heian Poet Yasumasa Playing the Flute by Moonlight, Subduing the Bandit Yasusuke with His Music, 1883, color woodcut on three panels (triptych). As a print it appears in many collections. #art #arthistory #japaneseprints #printmaking #woodblockprints

From Sotheby’s London, July 2023: “The full title of this print, Fujiwara no Yasumasa Playing the Flute by Moonlight, a Painting Shown at the Exhibition for the Advancement of Painting in Autumn 1882 (Meiji jugo mizunoe uma kishu Kaiga Kyoshinkai shuppinga Fujiwara no Yasumasa gekka roteki) highlights the fact that this triptych was based on a painting Yoshitoshi submitted to an exhibition of Japanese art (the Naikoku kaiga kyoshinkai) in 1882.

Both triptych and painting depict Fujiwara no Yasumasa (958-1036), the Heian period courtier, celebrated poet and flute-player. The story tells that one night while playing his flute on the Ichihara moor he was approached by Hakamadare Yasusuke (Kidomaru), a bandit, who planned to kill him. However as he was about to draw his sword and attack, Hakamadare Yasusuke was so enchanted by the music that he abandoned his plan. Widely considered Yoshitoshi’s masterpiece, this triptych is full of atmosphere and drama with these two characters captured on the windswept moor. The clouds were applied by hand and this appears to be an unrecorded example with the clouds applied horizontally.”