Shifting his weight awkwardly from side to side, John hands Sherlock a carefully-wrapped present.

"John, what is this? Christmas was several days ago." Sherlock studies the package, attempting to deduce the contents.

"I realise that, but I found them today, and couldn't resist. They… made me think of you."

Curious, Sherlock picks open the paper carefully and slides out a cardboard box, the type usually used to store paper. He opens it, and several brightly-coloured Japanese woodblock prints flutter out. He catches them dextrously and gently, and studies the top one. It's an incredibly garish illustration depicting a hideously bloodied woman carrying what appears to be a tray of sashimi. He looks expectantly at John, as if awaiting some sort of clarification. The others are all similarly gruesome.

"They're called "shinbun nishiki-e". Someone I knew in college had a couple, I thought they were kind of interesting. They're the Japanese precursor to tabloids and things like the agony column. They illustrated particularly violent or mysterious crimes, disappearances, that sort of thing, to get the public interested in them."

"John," Sherlock says slowly. "these are absolutely ghastly." John looks crestfallen for a mere second before Sherlock has time to continue, stroking one of the prints reverently with his index finger. "I love them! They're absolutely perfect." John peers up at Sherlock, beaming.


This A/N is going to get very graphic and gory, which is why it's at the bottom. Don't read it if you're easily grossed out or have issues involving mutilation of particularly personal areas.

Shinbun nishiki-e (literally: news brocade print) are a real and completely fascinating thing. They're both incredibly graphic and extremely sensationalist, and were very common in the Meiji era, which coincides roughly with the Victorian era. I think Sherlock Holmes in any of his incarnations would indeed be fascinated by the mentality behind them. The one I mentioned in the story is actually incredibly horrific – a woman found out her husband cheated on her so she murdered his mistress and sliced up her vulva, serving it to him as sashimi before killing him. The book "Dream Spectres: Extreme Ukiyo-e" by Jack Hunter and Shinbaku Press has a great chapter on these, if anyone wants to know more about them.