- Title
- Tokugawa Ieyasu Examining the Head of Kimura Shigenari at the Battle of Osaka Castle
- Date Made
- 1875, July
- Medium
- Color woodblock print
- Dimensions
- Image: 6 5/16 × 8 15/16 in. (16.03 × 22.7 cm)
Sheet: 7 × 9 1/2 in. (17.78 × 24.13 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.84.31.330
- Collecting Area
- Japanese Art
- Curatorial Notes
Depicted here is the presentation of the severed head of Kimura Shigenari by Ii Naotaka (left) to the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (right) following the Battle of Wakae during the summer siege of Osaka castle (1615). The presentation of Kimura's severed head relieved Naotaka's former failure months prior, when Kimura defeated Naotaka in a key battle against Ieyasu's last major rival, Toyotomi Hideyori, the son of the prior leader, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The final victory at Osaka castle and death of Hideyori solidified Tokugawa rule, and many historians use this date to signify the beginning of the Tokugawa era (1615-1868).
- Selected Bibliography
- Pitelka, Morgan. Spectacular Accumulation: Material Culture, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Samurai Sociability. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2016.
