Yugiri kinuta no tsuki
 #84
From the sequel: Tsuki No hyakushi (The Hundred Aspects of the Moon)
1890

Publisher: Akiyama Buemon (Kokkeido)
Seal: Yoshitoshi

Engraver: Enkatsu
Oban
nishiki-e

Good proof, beautiful colors, a few folds in the upper border, some scattered foxing.

"In the nô play Kinuta (named after the roll of wood on which the sheet was beaten), a man from Kyüshü has been held in the capital for three years, awaiting a legal verdict. Nostalgic for his distant western island, he sends his servant Yúgiri to assure his wife that he will be back within the year. The wife is delighted by Yúgiri's visit, but longs for her husband. The two women hear then the sound of the sheet being beaten to wash or soften it. This is an obvious allusion to a poem from Tang China, in which a man hears despite the distance his wife beating the sheet while waiting for him. Yugiri brings a kinuta to console her mistress, who joins her in the nevertheless servile task of beating the sheet.
When a new message arrives informing her that her husband will not return within a year, the woman goes crazy and dies of grief. Finally allowed to return home, the man learns of the death of his wife. His spirit appears to overwhelm him, but he manages to soothe it by chanting the Lotus Sutra - some sects believe that one can achieve salvation by repeating the name of this sutra alone.
In the print, the wife beats the sheet, wrapped around her kinuta, with a wooden mallet.
Obviously distant and absorbed in her work, she turns her back on Yugiri, who lowers her head. Instead of suggesting the comfort that the servant thought she brought, the image gives a feeling of overwhelm.
The painted decoration of the screen, a bush of lespedezes in flower under the full moon, evokes autumn. The clear vertical lines on the left side reveal the structure of the panels. The background is otherwise totally abstract, reduced to a light gray wash which sinks into the darkness. If the servant's modern outfit is quite incongruous, the mistress wears an opulent dress worthy of a Noh costume. We glimpse a tabi, a tailor-made sock separating the big toe.
The name Yügiri, which means "evening mist", is worn by many figures in Japanese culture, starting with the prince's son in Genji monogatari."

In: ONE HUNDRED ASPECTS OF THE MOON, John STEVENSON, 2018, Editions Citadelles and MAZENOD

The suite of “One Hundred Aspects of the Moon”, inspired by historical or legendary stories from China and Japan, is Yoshitoshi's most famous series, begun in 1885 and completed just before his death in 1892. Already at the time, each new print published was an event, the prints often selling out on the morning of their publication.