Lady Kayō, Consort of Prince Hanzoku of India, Holding a Severed Head 1865

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi made this woodblock print of Lady Kayō in nineteenth-century Japan. The image draws on a Japanese collection of ghost stories, represented by the title cartouche at the upper right. Yoshitoshi made this print during a time of dramatic social change as Japan opened to the West, and the print reveals a complex negotiation between tradition and modernity. Although the artist chose a subject from traditional folklore, he did so to critique contemporary society. The severed head is a shocking image, intended to unsettle the viewer and challenge conventional expectations of beauty and morality. Lady Kayō appears as both victim and avenger, using the image of the vengeful woman to question traditional gender roles and power structures. Historians interested in the public role of art can delve deeper by consulting primary source materials such as period writings, newspapers, and government documents to contextualize the image within social and institutional history.