Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi was a Japanese artist often called the last great master of the woodblock print. Born in 1839, he worked during a time when the old print tradition was fading under the pressures of modernization and photography. He responded with bold, imaginative, and sometimes violent images, drawing on history, legend, ghosts, and moods of the moon.

His late series of moonlit scenes, blending beauty and melancholy, is among his most beloved work. He struggled with poverty and mental illness yet produced prints of remarkable power and originality. Yoshitoshi is remembered for keeping the woodblock tradition alive with fresh energy at the very end of its golden age, and his work is now widely admired.