A Hundred Poets from the Literary Heroes of Our Country

(Honchô bunyû hyaku-nin isshu, 本朝文雄百人一首)

Publisher: Murata-ya Tetsu

c. 1842-1843

This series of prints portrays historical figures who are known to have written extant poetry, which is reproduced in a square panel on each print. On many of the prints, the hero-poet’s personal seal (kakihan) is reproduced in red. This series was produced at about the time that Kunisada took the name Toyokuni, in effect appointing himself as the successor to Toyokuni I and head of the Utagawa school. Kuniyoshi responded by severing his relationship with the school and using his own paulownia crest instead of the Utagawa school’s toshidama crest. Some of the prints in this series have the toshidama crest, some have the paulownia crest, and some have no crest at all. The prints in this series are each about 10 by 7 inches (25 by 18 centimeters), a size known as chûban. I am grateful to Robert Pryor for his contributions to this series.

Scene: Abe Munetô (安倍宗任) wearing court robes over half-armor and holding a bow and arrows

Robinson: S22.1

Scene: Akugenda Yoshihira (悪源太義平) seated and glaring to his left

Robinson: S22.2

Another state lacking the Toshidama crest

Scene: Asahina Saburô Yoshihide (朝比奈三郎義秀) standing in court robes with a fan

Robinson: S22.3

Another state of the above design

Scene: Ashikaga Tadayoshin (足利直義) seated before a large mirror dressing for a noh dance

Robinson: S22.4

NOTE: There is a second person present wearing a purple hakama (traditional trousers)

Another state without any purple and lacking Kuniyoshi’s paulownia crest

Scene: Chinzei Hachirô Tametomo (鎮西八郎為朝) standing in court robes and cap with a fan; a spray of cherry-blossom thrown at him by the maids at the time of his betrothal to Shiranui-hime

Robinson: S22.5

Scene: Kazusa Akushichibyôe Kagekiyo (上総悪七兵衛景清) standing holding a closed fan and a wide straw hat

Robinson: S22.6

Scene: Kajiwara Genda Kagesue (梶原源太景季) standing holding a wide straw hat

Robinson: S22.7

Scene: Komatsu Naidaijin Shigemori (小松内大臣重盛) standing in black brocade court robes holding the infant Emperor Antoku on his shoulder

Robinson: S22.8

Scene: Kô Musashi no Kami Moronao (高武藏間獅直) standing holding a card on which is written his love- poem to the lady Kaoyo-gozen in a scene from the first act of the kabuki play Kanadehon Chûshingura

Robinson: S22.9

Scene: Matsushima no Tsubone (松嶋局) seated with her child before her

Robinson: S22.10

Another state of the above design with a solid red title cartouche

Scene: Kiitchi’s daughter, Minazuru-hime (Kiitchi no musume Minazuru-hime, 鬼一の娘みなずる姫) standing barefoot and shielding a lantern with her sleeve (she obtained copies of her father’s scrolls of strategy for her love, Yoshitsune)

Robinson: S22.11

Another state with Kuniyoshi’s paulownia crest

Another state with blue replacing pink and Kuniyoshi’s paulownia crest

Another state with a solid red title cartouche and Kuniyoshi’s paulownia crest

Scene: Minamoto no Yoritomo (源頼朝) standing in court robes and cap holding a fan with a sword in a tiger skin scabbard

Robinson: S22.12

Scene: Onzôshi Ushiwaka Maru (御曹子牛若丸) seated examining the strategic scroll Sanryaku-no-maki in Ki-ichi Hôgen’s house

Robinson: S22.13

Another state with a solid red title cartouche and no crest

Another state with a solid red title cartouche and Kuniyoshi’s paulownia crest

Scene: Sarashina-hime (更科姫) with her son Shikanosuke and a bear cub

Robinson: S22.14

Scene: Satô Shirobei Tadanobu (佐藤四郎兵衛忠信) seated grasping his sword and leaning on a go board

Robinson: S22.15

Scene: Satsuma no Kami Tadanori (薩摩守忠度) seated at a writing-table with brush in hand

Robinson: S22.16

Scene: Mimyô, the twelfth century Shirabyôshi dancer (白拍子微妙) crouching and holding a wide black hat amid falling cherry petals

Robinson: S22.17

Scene: Tametomo’s wife Shiranui-hime (白縫姫) standing with a branch of cherry blossom and covering the lower part of her face with her sleeve

Robinson: S22.18

Scene: Soga Gorô Tokimune (曾我五郎時宗) in boyhood with his hands clasped in prayer before an image of the god Fudô

Robinson: S22.19

NOTE: This image bears a marked similarity to an ôban print designed by Kuniyoshi c. 1920 (S1a.1a)

Scene: Tomoe-jo (巴女) seated and holding Yoshinaka’s helmet in the smoke from a small incense burner with a storage chest for armor behind her

Robinson: S22.20

Kuniyoshi’s paulownia crest	Toshidama crest of the Utagawa school

“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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