Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Japanese, 1839-1892 Lunacy-Unrolling Letters, 1889 Published by Akiyama Buemon With Taiso seal (Great Resurrection) of artist Nishiki-e (color woodblock print) Oban format Museum Collection Purchased with a grant from the Carpenter Foundation The artist's seal uses a word which refers to Yoshitoshi's recovery years before from a serious mental breakdown. He eventually died after another breakdown. In this print, a servant woman is going mad over the death of her lover. She unrolls her lover's long letter, which she has read to tatters. It seems to rise to the moon, as if love must return to its unearthly home. In life and in art, men and women in traditional Japan communicated frequently through poetic letters, which were brandished in dramatically long form on the stage. Were such letters a fragile bridge between the separate worlds of men and women? Did they signal a kind of distant intimacy, a ritual instead of a kiss? Is a ritual more real than a kiss? In the pleasure district, however, a courtesan's letter had a different purpose, though couched in similar language.