Samurai with drawn sword
- Date:
- second half 1860s
- Medium:
- Preparatory drawing for a print, ink and color on paper
- Format:
- Oban
- Dimensions:
- 25.1 × 18.1 cm
- Source:
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
Description
"Samurai with Drawn Sword" is a preparatory drawing from the second half of the 1860s, depicting an unidentified warrior in the act of drawing or wielding his blade—a quintessential musha-e subject distilled to its elemental form. The drawing reveals Yoshitoshi's compositional thinking at the sketch stage: the figure's weight distribution, the angle of the blade, and the set of the warrior's jaw are all worked out in ink before any color is applied. Such drawings were likely made directly from imagination or from posed models within the workshop.
More Prints by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
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Saishin, from the series "Fashionable Women as the One Hundred and Eight Heroes of the Water Margin (Fuzoku onna Suikoden, ippyakuhachinin no uchi)"
c. 1828/30
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Herakles, Shôwa period, dated 1965?
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Chüshingura in Twelve Months
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Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Samurai with drawn sword was created by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年) in second half 1860s.
Samurai with drawn sword depicts warriors.
Samurai with drawn sword measures 25.1 × 18.1 cm (Oban format).