The
siege of Osaka was a series of battles undertaken by the Japanese
Tokugawa shogunate against the
Toyotomi clan, and ending in the clan's dissolution. Divided into two stages (the winter campaign and the summer campaign), and lasting from 1614 to 1615, the siege put an end to the last major armed opposition to the shogunate's establishment. This eight-metre-long (26 ft) painting, titled
The Summer Battle of Osaka Castle and executed on a
Japanese folding screen, illustrates
Osaka Castle under siege, and was commissioned by the
daimyo Kuroda Nagamasa, who took a team of painters with him to the battlefield to record the event. The painting depicts 5071 people and 21 generals, and is held in the collection of Osaka Castle.
Painting credit: unknown