The Life and Identity of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi Born Owariya Yonejiro on 30 April 1839, the man who would become known as Tsukioka Yoshitoshi entered a world in flux. He was raised in the Shimbashi district of old Edo, which is known today as Tokyo. His life was marked by a transition in identity, as he also used the name Taiso Yoshitoshi. He lived through the end of the Edo period and the beginning of the Meiji era, a time when the very fabric of Japanese society was being rewoven by rapid modernization and Western influence. His career as a Japanese printmaker was defined by a constant strug…