Minneapolis Institute of Art

Picture of Masakiyo at Shinshū Castle During the Conquest of Korea

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi; Publisher: Kakumotoya Kinjirō

Date

1863, 10th lunar month

Medium

Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

In this chaotic scene, bullets streak through the air and explode against the warriors’ wooden shields. The title hints that all is not what it seems: “Masakiyo” is the reverse of the given name of Katō Kiyomasa (1562–1611), a daimyo (feudal baron) and warrior who served during the Imjin War (1592–98). Shinshū (Jinju in Korean) Castle was the site of two attempted sieges by the Japanese against the Koreans. In this print, however, the Korean castle is replaced by St. Paul’s Cathedral in London in the far right background (a possible reference to the Anglo-Satsuma War [August 1863], which had happened just a few months earlier). Because of the prohibition on depicting current events, Yoshitoshi often disguised them by setting them nominally in the past, signaled here in the title and names of figures. Asia

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