Namikiri Juzaburo

A barefoot man in a dark blue kimono with a green-and-gold striped obi strides across a gray ground, an unsheathed sword in his lowered right hand and its scabbard tucked at his hip; his left hand is raised open at shoulder height, fingers curled, and he glances back over his shoulder. A round woven basket or hat with trailing cords lies on the ground beside him, and the upper portion of the sheet is filled with vertical columns of Japanese text framed by a red cartouche reading the series title, with the print's blues, deep indigo, and warm cream paper otherwise dominating the palette. Title: Namikiri Juzaburo; Artist: Tsukioka Yoshitoshi; Medium: Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock); Year: unknown.