Fujiwara no Yasumasa Plays the Flute by Moonlight

The courtier Fujiwara no Yasumasa crosses a moonlit moor playing his flute, while the bandit Hakamadare stalks him through the grass, sword drawn — and cannot strike. Yoshitoshi’s acknowledged masterpiece among his triptychs, taken from his own celebrated painting: an entire drama staged as wind, moonlight, and one unhurried figure who never turns around. Yasumasa walks; Hakamadare crouches coiled in the grasses of the right sheet. The music is drawn as the space between them — the bandit frozen at the exact distance of a leap he cannot make. "He never turned around. That was the whole of his defense."

Maker

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

Date

1883

Medium of the original

Woodblock print; ink and color on paper

Rights

Cleared for print

Catalogue number

PA-00417