Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (/) – Hashiba Chikuzen no Kami Hideyoshi Cutting a Melon (1887). Twenty-four Accomplishments in Imperial Japan. The scene shows Hashiba Hideyoshi (later Toyotomi Hideyoshi) slicing a melon offered by a peasant just before his campaign against Akechi Mitsuhide. According to legend, Hideyoshi vowed that Mitsuhide would meet the melon’s fate-an emblem of sworn revenge. Late-Meiji storytelling and color harmonize with Yoshitoshi’s mature draftsmanship. As Oda Nobunaga’s foremost lieutenant-renamed Hashiba Hideyoshi-he outpaced rivals on forced marches, seized castles with guile, and, after Nobunaga’s death at Honno-ji (1582), avenged his lord and outmaneuvered every contender. By the 1590s he had unified the warring provinces, raised Osaka Castle like a mountain of stone, and ruled as kampaku (regent) then taiko, reshaping society with land surveys and the famous sword hunt. A patron of culture who sparred-politically and philosophically-with tea master Sen no Rikyu, he also cast his gaze abroad, launching the dramatic but ruinous invasions of Korea. Hideyoshi died in 1598, leaving a child heir and a fragile peace that Tokugawa Ieyasu would soon claim, but his meteoric rise-from commoner to maker of emperors-remains the defining legend of ambition in the samurai age. Hashiba Chikuzen no Kami Hideyoshi Cutting a Melon. Medium: Woodblock print, ink and color on paper. Date: 1887 (Meiji period). Dimensions (H × W): Framed 18 x 14.25 in. Signature/Block info:?? (artist/design credit with residence). Notes: Legendary moment preceding Hideyoshi’s move against Akechi Mitsuhide; symbolic oath of vengeance.