Yoshitsune studying the Tiger scrolls, by Totoya Hokkei

An image of Yoshitsune studying the Tiger scrolls. Hokkei, Totoya (Japanese, 1780-1850). Surimono. Colour print from woodblocks, with metallic pigment, lacquer and blind embossing. 1830. Poetry by Ganjotei Shirataka, 1830. Ukiyo-e. Notes: Yoshitsune is studying a three-scroll set of secret military tactics named Tiger scrolls after an episode in ancient Chinese history. The Gikei-ki, or Life of Yoshitsune, compiled in the 15th century, describes how he acquired these scrolls from Kiichi-hogen, a celebrated Kyoto master of military and literary arts and divination. The episode appeared in a variety of popular stories and plays in the Edo period. The design of bamboo leaves and bellflowers on Yoshitsune’s upper robe is the symbol of his clan, the Genji (or Minamoto). The two Chinese characters on the scrolls indicate the year of the tiger, in this case 1830.

Terms of use

The low-resolution images published on this Website are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY-NC-ND). For more details: Fitzwilliam Terms of Use

This licence does not include any images of works that are still in copyright. Artistic copyright extends from the life of the artist to 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the artist died.

Download this image

For further information on use of images or to license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who can discuss terms and fees.

Yoshitsune studying the Tiger scrolls. Hokkei, Totoya (Japanese, 1780-1850). Surimono. Colour print from woodblocks, with metallic pigment, lacquer and blind embossing. 1830. Poetry by Ganjotei Shirataka, 1830. Ukiyo-e. Notes: Yoshitsune is studying a three-scroll set of secret military tactics named Tiger scrolls after an episode in ancient Chinese history. The Gikei-ki, or Life of Yoshitsune, compiled in the 15th century, describes how he acquired these scrolls from Kiichi-hogen, a celebrated Kyoto master of military and literary arts and divination. The episode appeared in a variety of popular stories and plays in the Edo period. The design of bamboo leaves and bellflowers on Yoshitsune’s upper robe is the symbol of his clan, the Genji (or Minamoto). The two Chinese characters on the scrolls indicate the year of the tiger, in this case 1830.

Image data

Accession Number: P.357-1937
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/19.0
Focal length: 120
Camera: Hasselblad H3DII-31
Photographer name: Michael Jones
Image height: 1025 pixels
Image width: 892 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.0 (Windows)
Filesize: 924.79kB
Exposure time: 1/125
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 19/1
Captured: 2018:10:24 16:16:04

Key words

19th Century blind embossing colour printing embossed embossing Fitz_PDP Gikei-ki gofun Japanese karazuri lacquer lacquered lacquering Life of Yoshitsune male metallic pigment military pigment poetry poets print reading robes scrolls seated sitting soldiers surimono tiger scroll Totoya Hokkei ukiyo-e verses warriors woodblock woodcut Yoshitsune

Citation for print

This page can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:


            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2026)
            "Yoshitsune studying the Tiger scrolls, by Totoya Hokkei"
            Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-218464 Accessed: 2026-01-15 02:56:13

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this page on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:


            {{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-218464
            |title=Yoshitsune studying the Tiger scrolls, by Totoya Hokkei
            |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2026-01-15 02:56:13|publisher=The
            University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/images/media-218464

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/pdp/pdp82/p_357_1937_201810_mfj22_dc2.jpg"
        alt="Yoshitsune studying the Tiger scrolls"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Yoshitsune studying the Tiger scrolls, by Totoya Hokkei</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>