- Title
- The Battle of Sannō Shrine at Tōeizan Temple
- Date Made
- 1874
- Medium
- Triptych; color woodblock prints
- Dimensions
- Overall: Image and paper: 14 1/16 x 28 3/16 in. (35.8 x 71.8 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.84.31.142a-c
- Collecting Area
- Japanese Art
- Curatorial Notes
In this battle, the new Meiji forces (combined Satsuma and Chōshū forces) defeated the Shōgitai militia (Tokugawa loyalists) in a massacre at Sannō Shrine, during the May 1868 Battle of Ueno, ending the shogunate in Japan. Saigō Takamori (1827-1877) led the new Meiji forces to Sannō Shrine to meet the Shōgitai militia, under Amano Hachirō (1831-1877). Amano Hachirō is pictured on the far right, conversing with a soldier, away from the heat of battle. Strict prohibitions by the Tokugawa government against depicting contemporary or recent historical events were lifted after the Meiji Restoration of 1868. This print is one of Yoshitoshi's first attempts at realistically depicting a current event. Having directly witnessed the Battle of Ueno, he depicts the cruel realities of the battle field. The initiative he took in realistically depicting violence brought him great attention in the Meiji era.
- Selected Bibliography
- Keyes, Roger and George Kuwayama. The Bizarre Imagery of Yoshitoshi: The Herbert R. Cole Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1980.
