Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 東海道五十三対 品川, 1845
Warrior artist
Kuniyoshi was the first prominent artist to specialise in depicting warriors. He paid great attention to the facial expressions and poses adopted by his figures, offering almost caricatural depictions of the excitement and suspense of the warrior stories.
The publisher sometimes included a short narrative poem with the print, to help explain exactly which scene was being depicted.
![Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 尼崎大合戦武智主従討死之圖 [三枚続きのうち中], 1865](https://iiif.micr.io/AYNQX/full/2000,/0/default.webp)
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 尼崎大合戦武智主従討死之圖 [三枚続きのうち中], 1865
Violent prints
The prints of warriors were sometimes rather gory and violent. Vincent van Gogh only had a limited number of prints of warriors in his collection; perhaps the gruesome scenes clashed with his idealised image of Japan as a peaceful country.