Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety of Our Country

(Honchô nijûshi-kô, 本朝廿四考)

Publisher: Murata-ya Tetsu

1842-1843

 

The book entitled “The Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety” was written by the Guo Jujing during the Yuan Dynasty.  It recounts the self-sacrificing behavior of twenty-four Chinese children who improved their parents’ lives or peacefully honored their deceased parents.  This series of prints portrays a more warlike lot of children from Japanese history and legend–several free their parents from captivity or avenge their parents’ deaths.  The prints in this series are each about 10 by 7 inches (25 by 18 centimeters), a size known as chûban.

 

Title: Anju-hime and Tsushiô Maru (安壽姫 封王丸)

Scene: Anju-hime carrying two buckets on a pole over her shoulder accompanied by her brother, Tsushiô Maru who is carrying a rake and a basket of reeds

Robinson: S23.1

 

Title: Chiyonô-hime (チ世能姫)

Scene: Chiyonô-hime in a wind holding a torch and a dirk about to rescue her father from imprisonment after the rebellion of Aidzu no Tarô Nobuchika against Yoritomo

Robinson: S23.2

 

Title: Chûjô-hime (中将姫)

Scene: Chûjô-hime walking by a lotus pond on a windy day

Robinson: S23.3

 

Title: Ichiman-maru and Hako-o-maru (一万丸 箱王丸)

Scene: The young Soga brothers practice swordsmanship on a heap of snow in order to avenge their father

Robinson: S23.4

 

Title: Hino Kumawaka-maru (日野熊若丸)

Scene: Hino Kumawaka Maru training to avenge his father by swinging across a stream on a bamboo

Robinson: S23.5

 

Title: The Dutiful Girl of the Hitotsuya (Hitotsuya no Kojo, 一ツ家の孝女)

Scene: The dutiful girl of Hitotsuya saved from the hag of the lonely house by an apparition of the goddess Kannon

Robinson: S23.6

 

Title: Hitsu-no-Saishô Haruhira (弼宰相春衡)

Scene: Hitsu-no-Saishô Haruhira recognizes his Father who was forced to act as a lighthouse with a candle on his head

Robinson: S23.7

 

Title: Homma Gennai-hyôe Suketada (本間源内兵衛資忠)

Scene: Homma Gennai-hyôe Suketada writing his farewell poem on a torii at Shitennôji with his own blood after the death of his father Sukesada

Robinson: S23.8

 

 

Title: Ima-jo of Take-no-uchi Village in Yamato (Yamato-kuni Take-no-uchi mura no Ima-jo, 大和国竹の内村今女)

Scene: The poor girl Ima-jo catching a carp to feed her parents

Robinson: S23.9

 

Title: Kamada Matahachi (鎌田又八)

Scene: Kamada Matahachi of Matsuzaka fighting off wolves with a huge iron bar in the Ashigara Mountains of Idzu

Robinson: S23.10

 

Title: Keyamura Rokusuke (毛谷村六助)

Scene: Keyamura Rokusuke spending seven days under the Hikosan Gongen Waterfall

Robinson: S23.11

 

Title: Kinsuke (公助)

Scene: Takenori Kinsuke seated with his bow behind him and the hat of a palace guard before him

Robinson: S23.12

 

Title: Kôju Maru (幸壽丸)

Scene: Kôju Maru seated grasping a dirk and about to perform seppuku with travelers on a mountain behind him

Robinson: S23.13

 

NOTE: The term “hara-kiri”, although more common in English than “seppuku”, is considered in Japan to be a vulgar and disrespectful description of an honorable action.

 

Title: Komatsu Sammi Shigemori-kyô (小松三位重盛卿)

Scene: Komatsu Sammi Shigemori-kyô as a youth

Robinson: S23.14

 

Title: Kuzunoki Masatsura (楠木正行)

Scene: Kusunoki Masatsura in court robes over armor beside an armillary sphere on a starry night

Robinson: S23.15

 

Title: Karumo, the Dutiful Daughter of Matsuyama (Matsuyama no Kojo Karumo, 松山の孝女刈摸)

Scene: Karumo looking in astonishment in a mirror on the floor in which she mistakes her own reflection for that of her dead mother

Robinson: S23.16

 

Title: The Dutiful Son of Mino (Mino no kuni no koshi, 美濃の国の孝子)

Scene: The dutiful youth from Mino Province carrying wood to warm his aged father

Robinson: S23.17

 

Title: The Dutiful Daughter Nobu (Kojo Nobu, 孝女のぶ)

Scene: Nobu with her sickle on the ground carrying a basket of rushes for her aged mother

Robinson: S23.18

 

Title: Sono, The Daughter of Yoshioka (Yoshioka musume Sono, 吉岡女園)

Scene: Sono dressed as a nun and carrying a shakuhachi (traditional Japanese bamboo flute) with three puppies at her feet

Robinson: S23.19

 

Title: Suketoki of Yamato (Yamato-kuni Suketoki, 大和国佐時)

Scene: Suketoki visiting with his dead parents who returned to him in the form of butterflies

Robinson: S23.20

 

Title: Suô no Naishi (周防の内侍)

Scene: The poetess, Suô no Naishi, walking on a windy night

Robinson: S23.21

 

Title: 摂?照田姫

Scene: Teruta-hime carrying a water bucket through the snow

Robinson: S23.22

 

Another state of the above print

 

Title:

Scene: Uneme of Atsuta exorcising a monstrous serpent from a lake

Robinson: S23.23

 

Title: The Dutiful Child Yoji (Koshi Yoji, 孝子与次)

Scene: Yoji working as a monkey-trainer to earn money to aid his sick mother

Robinson: S23.24

 

Title: Yuya (湯谷)

Scene: Yuya holding a poem-card by a blossoming cherry tree

Robinson: S23.25

  

 

 

Title: Zennojô of Shinano (Shinano kuni no Zennojô, 信濃国善之丞)

Scene: Zennojô with two demons and one of the judges of hell seeing a vision in a large mirror

Robinson: S23.26

“Robinson” refers to listing in Kuniyoshi: The Warrior-Prints by Basil William Robinson (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1982) and its privately published supplement.

 

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