- Title
- Sakanoue Tamuramaro in Rain of Arrows
- Date Made
- 1876
- Medium
- Color woodblock print
- Dimensions
- Image: 12 5/8 × 8 1/8 in. (32.07 × 20.64 cm)
Sheet: 14 × 9 3/16 in. (35.56 × 23.34 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.84.31.248
- Collecting Area
- Japanese Art
- Curatorial Notes
When an event of great importance in the world occurs, it is said that the grave of Sakanoue Tamuramaro shakes mysteriously, a superstition arising from Sakanoue's central role in Japanese history. As Japan's first shogun in the late 8th century, Sakanoue served three different emperors with unfaltering fidelity. His legend was especially popular during Yoshitoshi's time, when the Meiji government promoted the emperor as a living emblem of Japanese culture and encouraged the country to serve him in any way possible. Here, we see Sakanoue directing a dense line of arrows toward an unseen enemy, most likely the Ainu, whom his emperor intended to force into submission. The rain of arrows in the name of the emperor symbolizes the intense nationalism of Meiji Japan as well as illustrating Sakanoue's potency as a military leader.
