Hosokute: Horikoshi Tairyo Haunted by the Ghosts of His Victims, no. 49 from the series The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō

One of Kuniyoshi’s most creative series of woodblock prints, the Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō, was based on a popular subject for sets of landscapes: the views at the stations on one of the major roads linking Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto. In Kuniyoshi’s version the landscape views appear in small scenes at the top, but the real subjects are either famous tales associated with the stop, or clever puns on the station’s name.

The subject here is the evil Lord Horikoshi, who had viciously oppressed the farmers of his domain. One, Asakura Tōgō, bravely reported the lord’s vile acts to the shogun, knowing that it would lead to his execution. This scene, based on an 1851 kabuki adaptation of the story, takes place years later, as Horikoshi is slowly going mad, haunted by visions of death and Asakura’s crucifixion. A particularly eerie detail is the slim, ghostly hand extending in a spectral ribbon from his bedding and stroking his cheek. This is actually a pun on the name of the station, Hosokute 細久手, the characters of which can mean “narrow, long hand.”