Hashiba Hideyoshi blowing a mouth-organ, from the series Newly Selected Records of the Taikō Hideyoshi (Shinsen Taikōki)

This 1884 print by Utagawa Toyonobu, held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (accession sc186220, object 254988), depicts Hashiba Hideyoshi blowing a mouth-organ (shō), an unusual quiet moment within the Shinsen Taikōki's predominantly martial narrative. The episode draws on the popular literary tradition of presenting Hideyoshi as a man of broad cultural attainments as well as a military commander, in keeping with the Edo-period Taikōki sources that emphasized his patronage of the tea ceremony, his moon-viewing parties, and his sponsorship of musical and theatrical performance at his court. The shō, a free-reed mouth organ used in gagaku court music, signals Hideyoshi's appropriation of aristocratic cultural forms as part of his self-fashioning as the legitimate successor to the imperial court's authority. Toyonobu's composition departs from the dense battle scenes that dominate much of the Shinsen Taikōki and gives the figure a contemplative register, with the bright aniline reds of the costume drawing attention to Hideyoshi's increasingly elaborate ceremonial wardrobe. The 1884 dating places the print in the second year of the series and shows Toyonobu's continued investment in the project.