Tsukioka Yoshitoshi
Japanese, 1839-1892
Ōshū Adachigahara Hitotsu Ie no Zu, September 1885
Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper
A heavily pregnant woman is bound and gagged, strung upside down from the ceiling in an old hut. Below, a wizened old woman sharpens her knife, ready to cut open the woman’s belly.
The gruesome story depicted here begins as a quest to cure a sick child. The child’s mother, a princess, sends a wet nurse to find the liver of a newborn baby, the main ingredient required for the cure of her infant’s sickness. Unable to find a mother willing to sacrifice her child, the wet nurse decides to hide in a cave and wait for a pregnant woman to pass by. When one does, the wet nurse abducts her and kills her unborn child, realizing only too late that it was her own pregnant daughter. The horrendous deed drives the woman insane, and she turns into a demon, forever haunting the moor in search of human flesh.
From Wikipedia: "This color print was banned by the Meiji government for “disturbing public morals.”