Yoshikage Gotō Military Officers of the Imperial Court Receiving Celebratory Cup after Defeating the Satsuma Rebellion

An original 1914 woodblock print – Yoshikage Gotō, Military Officers of the Imperial Court Receiving Celebratory Cup after Defeating the Satsuma Rebellion.

A striking, colourful triptych of nishiki-e (brocade picture) woodblock prints, depicting a celebratory scene from the imperial Meiji court. Military officers receive sake from ceremonial cups filled by geishas, in celebration of the defeat of the Satsuma rebellion in 1877, marking the end of the feudal era.

Individual sheet size: 35 x 24cm. Total size: 35 x 73cm.

Please note that the three sheets are separate.

The triptych comes with the interesting provenance of Robert Byron (1905–1941), travel writer and art historian. Byron is best known for his travelogue 'The Road to Oxiana', documenting his travels in the Middle East but written whilst he was living in Beijing in 1835–6. Byron was an aesthete and member of the so-called Bright Young Things of London between the wars; in Beijing he was visiting his friend (and unrequited love) Desmond Parsons (1910–1937), as well as his Eton & Oxford contemporary Harold Acton (1904–1994) who was living there at the time. Byron's great desire was to go to Japan, and his further travels did include Japan, along with America, Russia and Siberia. He met an untimely death in 1941 during World War II when the ship he was on was torpedoed. Byron's extensive collection of travel photographs is now in the British Museum.