Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 月岡芳年

Famous warriors are just one of the subjects depicted in Tsukioka Yoshitoshi’s series One Hundred Aspects of the Moon. In this scene he captures the military leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) scaling Mount Inaba to infiltrate the Saito clan castle at the top. In the 1567 siege, Hideyoshi successfully penetrated the castle from its unguarded rear, opening the front gates for the troops of his lord, Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582).

In 1564, during the siege of the Saito clan stronghold at Gifu Castle on Inaba Mountain, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98) climbed an unguarded precipitous cliff at night with six reliable men and opened the gates of the castle to the troops of his leader, Oda Nobunaga (1534-82). Hideyoshi, who was destined to be one of the great warlords of the late 16th century, went on to revenge his leader’s death and pursue Nobunaga’s dream of reunifying Japan during a period of factional warfare.

What do you think the artist Yoshitoshi is telling us about Hideyoshi in this print?

To assist in the taking of Gifu castle during a siege, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-98), a young commander in the army of Oda Nobunaga (1534-82), scaled a very difficult cliff to gain access to the fortress. This heroic deed was very significant in Nobunaga’s military campaign to unify Japan under his leadership at the end of the 16th century.