Saohime perishing in the flames

The subject is Saohime — most likely the figure from kabuki and gōkan tradition whose death in flames furnished Yoshitoshi with one of his recurring themes, women confronting fire. Yoshitoshi handled the burning figure repeatedly across his career, from the early Edo-period-style Eimei nijūhasshūku (Twenty-eight Famous Murders with Verse, 1866–67) through late designs in Tsuki hyakushi (One Hundred Aspects of the Moon). In this print the flames are likely rendered through [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) printing of orange and red over a darker key block, with the figure's hair and trailing robes drawn into the fire's diagonal sweep so that body and flame share a single linear rhythm. Such designs sit at the intersection of his ghost-and-violence prints and his interest in named historical and legendary women, and they show the late [nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e) medium pushed toward a heightened emotional register.