Copped and cropped from Kanbara Bunko

Tokyo nichinichi shinbun
No. 9004 (Unnumbered)
1876-10-24 (incident)
1876-11/12? (Notification)
Kumamoto rebels defeated

Story in brief

The drawing depicts the Shinpuren rebellion, led by, among others, Ueno Kengo (ã–ėŒ˜Œá), here riding a whitish horse, brandishing a lance against a background of flames and smoke.

Other party members, many of them named in cartouches, wield swords against anonymous government soldiers armed with cutlasses and, apparently, a few firearms.

A couple of standards show the start of “VÆc‘ū_ (Tensho Kodaijin) -- aka Amaterasu Oomikami, the legendary divine progenitor of Japan and the Yamato race -- and the object of the groups.

Another standard shows the start of what may be “ŪčΌäq (dosei otazune) -- announcing that the party was searching for enemies of its imperial-way cause.

Commentary

The Shinpuren rebellion was also the theme of Yoshitoshi's Shinpuren rebellion (YHS-1127) -- which features Ueno Kengo in action on a brown horse, dodging some serious bullets.

Yoshitoshi returned to the Shinpuren in Kumamoto rioters(YHS-9001), the unnumbered keyblock print, which depicts several of the leaders, most prominently Ueno, and lists the names of as many others as were known.

Kanbara Bunko

The image shown here is as it was captured and cropped from what appears to be an unaligned composite of separate scans of the three sheets of the triptych -- as posted on the Kanbara Bunko section of Kagawa University Library's website (see Media Sources).

The received image is not clear enough to make out the otodoke date, or to read the text or other particulars -- though the name of the rebel leader Ueno Kengo can be made out, and Yoshimura's signature is obvious. The date of the rebellion, as stated in the title of the story, is also readable -- Meiji 9-10-24 (24 October 1876).

Print information

Size oban triptych
Series: Tokyo nichinichi shinbun
Issue: No issue number (TNS-9004)
Notification date: 1876-11/12? (Stage 4 banner)
Drawer: Ito Seisai (signed Seisai Yoshimura)
Writer: Unsigned
Carver: Unsigned
Publisher: Fukuda Kumajiro [Gusokuya]
Image: Kanbara Bunko

Principal sources

Kanbara Bunko
Konishi Vol. 7 (1977:135)
Tsuchiya 1995
Tsuchiya 2000
CCMA 2008