Yamazaki taisen no zu (The Great Battle at Yamazaki)
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, Yamazaki taisen no zu (The Great Battle at Yamazaki), 1865, color woodblock print on paper; ōban nishiki-e; triptych, The Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Graphic Arts Collection, public domain, 85.14.61a-c
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- Title
Yamazaki taisen no zu (The Great Battle at Yamazaki)
- Related Titles
original language: 山崎大戦の図
translated: The Great Battle at Yamazaki
transliterated: Yamazaki taisen no zu
- Artist
- Related People
publisher: Yamashiroya Jinbei (Japanese, active ca. 1842-1873)
- Date
1865
- Period
Japan: Meiji period (1868-1912)
- Medium
color woodblock print on paper; ōban nishiki-e; triptych
- Dimensions (H x W x D)
image/sheet:14 in x 28 15/16 in (overall)
- Inscriptions & Markings
censor's mark: 丑十二改, printed in black relief within circular cartouche, lower left of left sheet Transliteration (Translation): ushi jūni aratame (inspected ox 12 [1865, 12th month]) Language: Japanese
title: 山崎大戦之圖, printed in black ink within rectangular cartouche on purple, white, and green ground, upper right of right sheet Transliteration (Translation): Yamazaki taisen no zu (picture of the great battle at Yamazaki) Language: Japanese
publisher's mark: 山甚板, printed in black ink within rectangular cartouche on yellow ground, lower left of each sheet Transliteration (Translation): Yamajin han ([seal of the publisher Yamashiroya Jinbei 山城屋甚兵衛]) Language: Japanese Description: Edo publisher, firm Sansendō 山泉堂 active ca. 1842-73.
signature: 一魁斎芳年画, printed in black ink within gourd-shaped cartouche on red ground, lower left of each sheet Transliteration (Translation): Ikkaisai Yoshitoshi ga (picture [by] Ikkaisai Yoshitoshi) Language: Japanese
- Collection Area
Asian Art; Graphic Arts
- Category
Prints
Japanese Traditional Prints
- Object Type
relief print
- Culture
Japanese
- Credit Line
The Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Graphic Arts Collection
- Accession Number
85.14.61a-c
- Copyright
public domain
- Terms
All the frenzy of battle is captured in this vivid depiction of the battle between the armies of Akechi Mitsuhide and Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the summer of 1582. Eleven days earlier, Mitsuhide had assassinated his feudal lord, Oda Nobunaga, in Kyoto. Hideyoshi, another of Nobunaga’s vassals, raced toward the city from over 100 miles away, picking up reinforcements en route. When the two armies met at Yamazaki, Mitsuhide's forces were thrashed. While this print’s title clearly reads "The Great Battle of Yamazaki," the names of the warriors, written in the yellow and blue cartouches, were altered to comply with censorship laws. Nevertheless, we recognize Mitsuhide at the upper left on a bay stallion, while Hideyoshi appears at the lower right, on foot and wearing a deer antler helmet. Dominating the center is Mitsuhide's chief retainer and general, Saitō Kuranosuke.
- Exhibitions
2005 Crowd Appeal: Impressions of Edo Japan Portland Art Museum
2013 Legendary Samurai Portland Art Museum
