Yoshitoshi - Masaoka holding her murdered child

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi  The wet nurse Masaoka of the Date clan holding her dead child.  From the series, Twenty-four Accomplishments in Imperial Japan (Kōkoku nijūshi-kō). It consists of images of various people (mostly samurai) who played notable roles in Japanese history. It dates from towards the end of Yoshitoshi's career, when he was about forty-two. It thus dates from slightly before before his well-known masterpieces such as his great series "One Hundred Aspects of the Moon" (1885-1892), and "New Forms of Thirty-Six Ghosts" (often called simply "Thirty-Six Ghosts") (1889-1892). The series was very popular while Yoshitoshi was alive, and it went through numerous printings. Several different states may be seen of these early printings (all with a red title cartouche); in some (perhaps the earliest, since it was the most work to produce) the text panel has several inclined bokashi stripes across it; in others (perhaps later), a simple band of bokashi at the top and bottom; and in oth