Shinohara Kunimoto

Shinohara Kunimoto — a commander who fought on the Satsuma side in the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion against the Meiji government — is depicted in this 1877 print, likely in the immediate context of the conflict. Like Kirino Toshiaki, Shinohara was a former samurai who followed Saigō Takamori into the last armed resistance against the centralising Meiji state. Kiyochika's portrait of the rebel commander, issued while the rebellion was still unfolding or just concluded, reflects the ambivalent popular sympathy that accompanied the old samurai class's last stand.