Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川国芳

A great ship rams into rocks, its passengers scattered among the crashing waves. The crest on the sails indicates that this is the ship of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–1598), a samurai lord who played an important role in unifying Japan. In this scene, Kuniyoshi depicts Hideyoshi’s narrow escape from death when his sailor Yojibei ran the ship aground. Yojibei was put to death for the assassination attempt.

In Kuniyoshi’s time, the ruling Tokugawa shogunate was extremely sensitive of images of Hideyoshi, a figure they had defeated generations before to gain control of the country. In the 1830s, Kuniyoshi became the first illustrator to revive imagery of Hideyoshi. The artist’s glorification of this figure, as well as his adoption of the Hideyoshi crest as his seal, can be interpreted as anti-Tokugawa in sentiment.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98), a great warlord of the late 16th century, takes refuge on the rock to the left. He is fleeing from the ship’s captain, Yojibei, who has attempted to assassinate him.