Japanese Print "Toki Daishirō" by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
Artist:Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
Title:Toki Daishirō
Date:2nd month 1865
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Source:Worcester Art Museum
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Description:
The sixteenth-century warrior Toki Daishirō tested his bravery by spending a night in a haunted temple, where statues possessed by supernatural forces attacked him. Dancing skeletons frolic in the background as Daishirō locks ankles with an apparition in the form of a Buddhist guardian figure, or Niō. The macabre Buddha with a leering face in its stomach, together with the lavish interior, has been interpreted as a criticism of the corrupt Buddhist institutional system. Towards the end of the Edo period (1603–1868) Buddhism was increasingly vilified as a vessel of continental (Chinese) values, during a contemporary movement to champion native Japanese cultural elements.
