Heroes for the Snow, Moon, and Flowers (Buyu setsugekka)
Buyu setsugekka
About This Series
"Heroes for the Snow, Moon, and Flowers" (Buyu setsugekka) is one of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's mature musha-e series, applying the classical poetic triad of snow, moon and flowers, the three canonical aspects of seasonal beauty in Japanese verse, to portraits of celebrated warriors from Japanese and Chinese legend. The conceit had a long pedigree in ukiyo-e: Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi had both published cycles of this type, and Yoshitoshi's series belongs to the broader mitate tradition of grouping subjects under poetic categories drawn from classical literature. The prints are typically dated to the mid-1880s, when Yoshitoshi was at the height of his late-career productivity, and were issued in oban tate-e format by one of his regular Tokyo publishers; the original wrapper occasionally found with impressions indicates a planned series of around a dozen sheets, with each warrior identified by a poetic association with snow, moon or flower-viewing. The figures include Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Taira no Tomomori, the Soga brothers and other staples of the musha-e repertory, each placed in a setting that integrates the seasonal motif into the action of the scene. The Buyu setsugekka prints are distinguished by Yoshitoshi's late style of monumental, sculpturally modelled warrior figures isolated against carefully arranged landscape backgrounds, with the deep indigos, ink blacks and selectively burnished surfaces that characterize his best 1880s work. They form an important companion to his more famous "One Hundred Aspects of the Moon" (Tsuki hyakushi) and "New Forms of Thirty-Six Ghosts" (Shinkei sanjurokkaisen) of the same years, sharing their refined integration of historical narrative and poetic conceit. Impressions are catalogued in the comprehensive Yoshitoshi holdings of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the British Museum, and the series is documented in John Stevenson's standard checklists of the artist's late work.
Prints in This Series (1)
Frequently Asked Questions
"Heroes for the Snow, Moon, and Flowers" (Buyu setsugekka) is one of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's mature musha-e series, applying the classical poetic triad of snow, moon and flowers, the three canonical aspects of seasonal beauty in Japanese verse, to portraits of celebrated warriors from Japanese and Chinese legend. The conceit had a long pedigree in ukiyo-e: Hiroshige and Kuniyoshi had both published cycles of this type, and Yoshitoshi's series belongs to the broader mitate tradition of grouping subjects under poetic categories drawn from classical literature. The prints are typically dated to the mid-1880s, when Yoshitoshi was at the height of his late-career productivity, and were issued in oban tate-e format by one of his regular Tokyo publishers; the original wrapper occasionally found with impressions indicates a planned series of around a dozen sheets, with each warrior identified by a poetic association with snow, moon or flower-viewing. The figures include Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Taira no Tomomori, the Soga brothers and other staples of the musha-e repertory, each placed in a setting that integrates the seasonal motif into the action of the scene. The Buyu setsugekka prints are distinguished by Yoshitoshi's late style of monumental, sculpturally modelled warrior figures isolated against carefully arranged landscape backgrounds, with the deep indigos, ink blacks and selectively burnished surfaces that characterize his best 1880s work. They form an important companion to his more famous "One Hundred Aspects of the Moon" (Tsuki hyakushi) and "New Forms of Thirty-Six Ghosts" (Shinkei sanjurokkaisen) of the same years, sharing their refined integration of historical narrative and poetic conceit. Impressions are catalogued in the comprehensive Yoshitoshi holdings of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the British Museum, and the series is documented in John Stevenson's standard checklists of the artist's late work.
The Heroes for the Snow, Moon, and Flowers (Buyu setsugekka) series contains 1 prints, created by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.
The Heroes for the Snow, Moon, and Flowers (Buyu setsugekka) series was created by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡芳年).
We currently have 1 of 1 known prints from the Heroes for the Snow, Moon, and Flowers (Buyu setsugekka) series indexed in our collection. Browse them all on this page.
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