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Takiyasha & the Skeleton Spectre
Utagawa Kuniyoshi · 1797–1861
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3 variations + a matched story print, every standard frame ratio. 300 DPI · sRGB · personal-use license.
Museum-quality giclée on Hahnemühle German Etching — heavyweight 310gsm, acid-free, velvety matte. Made to order & shipped.
Sizes in the download
Ready-to-print files at every size below — each drops straight into a standard frame at 300 DPI, nothing cropped:
Each of these also prints big-wall at 150 DPI — up to about 36″ on the short side (so the 36×24″ becomes 54×36″), for a step-back view. Or print the borderless master, the full-resolution scan, sharp to about A3.
The work
One colossal skeleton, where the story called for many.
Kuniyoshi's most striking invention was to condense his literary source into a single, colossal skeleton. In Santō Kyōden's original tale, the climactic battle featured warring armies of small skeletons, not one giant skeleton demon.
The story
A princess raises the dead in a ruined palace.
The triptych illustrates the tale of Princess Takiyasha, daughter of the rebel warlord Taira no Masakado. After his failed rebellion and death, she uses sorcery in the ruined palace at Sōma to summon the ghosts of fallen soldiers as an enormous skeleton against the imperial agent Ōya no Tarō Mitsukuni, who ultimately defeats the plotters.
Why it matters
Born in a moment of censorship.
The triptych appeared around 1844, as the Tenpō Reforms of 1841–43 cracked down especially on kabuki and on prints of actors and courtesans, prompting ukiyo-e artists to explore new subjects and styles. While no precise Western print model has been firmly identified, scholarship notes that detailed European-derived skeleton imagery was available to Kuniyoshi through anatomical texts of the 18th and 19th centuries, including translated European works.
The file & the facts
- Title
- Takiyasha & the Skeleton Spectre
- Artist
- Utagawa Kuniyoshi
- Year
- c. 1844
- Medium
- Woodblock triptych
- Original
- 35 × 71 cm (triptych)
- Collection
- British Museum, London
- Rights
- Open access · personal use
- File
- 300 DPI · sRGB · JPEG
