A Woman saving the Nation: A chronicle of Great Peace

Artist Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 月岡芳年 (Japanese, 1839–1892)

Date1886

Mediumwoodblock print, ink and color on paper

DimensionsOban Triptych: 36.7 × 70 cm (14 7/16 × 27 9/16 in.)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineAlexander H. Bullock Fund

Terms

Object number2002.243

Label TextResting his arm on a lacquered armrest, the man at center dreams of his mistress, the richly clad sleeping woman on the right, whose posture mirrors his own. The man’s wife, dressed more austerely in a robe covered in a pattern of cranes, sits before a screen with the same motif, a traditional symbol of longevity. Awake, she grips a short sword before her, maintaining vigilance through her husband’s distraction. The scene is thought to be based on the fifth Tokugawa shogun Tsunayoshi (1646–1709). Later kabuki plays imagined his wife as a martyr to his neglectful governance. Images like this one in the Meiji period promoted the idea of women as active participants in creating a modern Japanese nation-state.ProvenanceKatie and Scott McDonald, Rochester, NY

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