This page attempts to catalog all known prints in Yoshitoshi‘s series ‘A Theater Alphabet of True Forms ( Makoto no katachi gekijō iroha awase )’ (1869)
Yoshitoshi designed this series in collaboration with Kunichika. Yoshitoshi used western-style techniques in creating the images of ronin at the tops of the prints, reminiscent of the “100 warriors” series. Kunichika used a more classical style in the design of the kabuki actors at bottom. This series is very poorly documented, and the total number of prints in the series is unknown, there may be yet other prints which have not yet come to our attention. If you know of any prints from this series which aren’t listed here, or have either i) information about any errors on the page, ii) better images than the ones below, or iii) missing information about individual prints (e.g. publisher, exact date) please let us know.
Technical details
- Dates: 1869
- Size: Ōban
- Signed: Kaisai Yoshitoshi hitsu
- Seals: kiri
- Publishers:
- Block carvers:
Previous cataloguings
Roger. S. Keyes, "Courage and Silence: A Study of the Life and Color Woodblock Prints of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 1839-1892", Cinncinnati, 1982
where it appears as series #264.
