Kagoshima boto no zu

A print depicting the rebel forces of Kagoshima — the Satsuma domain's samurai fighters during the 1877 rebellion — rendered in Chikanobu's characteristic style of warrior documentation. The Kagoshima rebels occupied a complex position in Meiji popular culture: officially enemies of the new state, they were simultaneously romantic heroes of an older Japan that many found more compelling than the modernizing present. Chikanobu's imagery of the rebels honored their martial tradition while existing within a print culture that also celebrated the government forces that defeated them.