Minneapolis Institute of Art

By Request, Picture of Fujiwara Yasumasa Playing the Flute by Moonlight, a Painting Shown at the Exhibition for the Advancement of Painting in Autumn 1882

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi; Publisher: Akiyama Buemon

Date: February 1883
Medium: Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper
Department: Asian Art
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Art

For the Competitive Painting Exhibition (Kaiga Kyōshinkai) held in October 1882 in Tokyo, Yoshitoshi painted a hanging scroll of the flute player story. The painting must have been very well received, because soon after the exhibition the publisher Akiyama Buemon urged Yoshitoshi to create a print version of it, which since then has become his iconic masterpiece. Yoshitoshi had to adapt the composition from a vertical to a horizontal format. In the painting, the thief stands directly behind Yasumasa and both are illuminated by the moon from above. For the panoramic view of the triptych, Yoshitoshi spread the reeds over all three panels, moved the moon to the far left and the thief to the right, next to Yasumasa. Japan, Asia

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