Hanga
I Really want to go to sleep by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi — Japanese Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)

I Really want to go to sleep

by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

Medium:
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Image courtesy of
Saru Gallery

Description

The title points to Yoshitoshi's 1888 series Fūzoku sanjūnisō (Thirty-Two Aspects of Customs and Manners), in which each print depicts a woman from a specific social class or historical period through a single emotional or behavioral state — sleepy, longing, irritated, content. The image likely shows a young woman in an intimate moment of fatigue, her body language suggesting a desire to retire: stretching, leaning against bedding, or rubbing her eyes. The series departs from idealized Edo-period bijin-ga by emphasizing psychological specificity over standardized beauty, and by setting figures across distinct historical moments from the Tenpō era through the Meiji period. Technically, the series is admired for its delicate bokashi gradients, refined keyblock line, and the publisher Tsunajima Kamekichi's careful registration. Together with Tsuki hyakushi (One Hundred Aspects of the Moon), Fūzoku sanjūnisō represents the late maturity of Yoshitoshi's style, in which figural restraint and psychological depth take the place of the violent narratives of his earlier years.

More Prints by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

Frequently Asked Questions

I Really want to go to sleep was created by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年).