Yoshitoshi: Sano Jirôzaemon Murdering a Courtesan. (Sano Jirôzaemon no Hanashi) (Sold)

Artist: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
Title: Sano Jirôzaemon Murdering a Courtesan. (Sano Jirôzaemon no Hanashi)
Series: New Selection of Eastern Brocade Pictures: SHINSEN AZUMA NISHIKIE
Date: 1886

The evil farmer Sano Jirôzaemon pursues the courtesan Yatsuhashi in a jealous rage after killing her patron at Yoshiwara gate. She has fallen, her packet of tissues fluttering like birds and her red under-robe swirling in agitation. He advances towards her, sword dripping with the blood of her lover. His face, shown at a creepily oblique angle, is festered with pockmarks only in the first edition of this print.

The event happened in the 1720s and was dramatized into the 1850 Kabuki play “Aftermath in the Flower-bedecked Streets”.

Condition: Excellent impression and color; very good condition. Small amount of wormage in margins.
Dimensions: ôban diptych
Publisher: Tsunashima Kamekichi
Literature: See “Yoshitoshi: The Splendid Decadent”, page 136, figure 33.
Seal: Taiso
Signature: Yoshitoshi

SKU: YOT259