Hanga
Rin Chû kills officer Riku near the temple of the mountain spirit by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi — Japanese Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)

Rin Chû kills officer Riku near the temple of the mountain spirit

by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

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

Description

A scene from Suikoden (Chinese: Shuihu zhuan, "Water Margin"), the Chinese vernacular novel of 108 outlaw heroes that found a wide Japanese readership after Bakin's translation and Kuniyoshi's print series of 1827–1830. Rin Chū (Lin Chong) is one of the principal heroes; the episode shown — his killing of the treacherous officer Riku Ken (Lu Qian) at a snowbound mountain-spirit shrine — is a frequently illustrated moment in the Suikoden cycle. Yoshitoshi's version likely places the figures before the small wooden temple, snow falling or settled across roof and ground, sword raised mid-strike. The artist trained under Kuniyoshi precisely during the period when his master's Suikoden prints defined warrior imagery, and Yoshitoshi's treatment of the same source material extends that lineage with greater anatomical specificity and atmospheric weight. The composition would deploy bokashi gradations across the snowfield to set the figures off, exemplifying musha-e during the final decades of ukiyo-e production.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Rin Chû kills officer Riku near the temple of the mountain spirit was created by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年).

Rin Chû kills officer Riku near the temple of the mountain spirit depicts temples & shrines, mythology, and mountains.