Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Titled with a reference to Utagawa Kuniyoshi, the great Edo-period master of warrior prints and imaginative compositions, this woodblock print by Hirayama Roko was cataloged from the British Museum's collection. The Kuniyoshi reference in the title likely reflects the print's catalog context or a stylistic connection rather than direct collaboration, since Kuniyoshi died in 1861, decades before Hirayama's activity. The British Museum holds one of the world's largest collections of Japanese prints, with over 30,000 works spanning the full history of ukiyo-e. Hirayama's presence in this collection indicates that the artist's prints entered the international circulation network through which Japanese woodblock prints reached European and American institutions during the twentieth century.