Individual Warrior Prints, Part III

 

 

Scene: Watônai Sankwan overcoming a tiger under a pine tree

Publisher: Sano-ya Kihei

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.1

 

Image courtesy of Nora Deaver

 

 

Scene: Nikki Gennosuke in rain with his foot on one of two beasts seeing the apparition of a dead man behind a tree

Publisher: Tsuta-ya Kichizô

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.2

 

Scene: Kamada Matahachi killing a monstrous cat in the mountains of Ise Province

Publisher: Tsuta-ya Kichizô

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.3

 

Scene: Keyamura Rokusuke struggling with three kappa on a riverbank with another swimming in the river

Publisher: Tsuta-ya Kichizô

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.4

 

NOTE: Kappa are amphibious goblins with the body of a tortoise, the limbs of a frog and the head of a monkey

 

Scene: Satô Shirô Tadanobu wearing Yoshitsune’s armor in snow on the balcony of the pagoda of Yoshino Temple

Publisher: ?

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.5

 

Scene: Yendô Musha Moritô holding up Kesa-gozen’s severed head in the moonlight among falling maple leaves

Publisher: Sôshû-ya Yohei

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.6

 

Scene: Kashiwade no Hanoshi in full armor glaring down at a tiger that clings to the edge of a snowy precipice

Publisher: Yamamoto-ya Heikichi

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.7

 

This final drawing (hanshita-e) for an unpublished print of Kashiwade no Hanoshi in full armor glaring down at a tiger in the snow dates from about 1834.

 

 

Scene: Tomoye-gozen struggleing with Musashi Saburozayemon Arikuni on a rock by a waterfall

Publisher: Yamamoto-ya Heikichi

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.8

 

I am grateful to Ward Pieters for locating this image.

 

No image available

 

Scene: HakoMaru (Soga Gorô in boyhood) reading a scroll by a waterfall

Publisher: Yebi-Ne

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.9

 

No image available

 

Scene: Usui Sadamitsu holding a wooden beam while treading on a wolf

Publisher: Yebi-Ne

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.10

 

Scene: Kwaidô Maru overcoming a wild boar with a huge axe.  The background is plane and there is a poem above Kwaidô Maru.

Publisher: Jôshû-ya Kinzô

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.11

 

NOTE: This is an example of an aka-e (red print) which was said to protect from smallpox.

 

Scene: Taira no Tadamori (foreground) and the oil thief (left)

Publisher: Sôshû-ya Yohei

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.12

 

Scene: Momotarô with a monkey, a pheasant, ‘the precious things’ and a dog offering him sake

Publisher: ?

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.13

 

Scene: Mongaku Shônin under the waterfall

Publisher: Maru-ya Seijirô

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.14

 

Scene: Chinzei Hachirô Tametomo grasping bow and arrows looks up at Raiden (the thunder god) in a cloud

Publisher: Sôshû-ya Yohei

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.15

 

Scene: Ushiwaka Maru (Yoshitsune) fencing with two tengu by moonlight

Publisher: Yebi-Ne

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.16

 

NOTE: Tengu are forest-dwelling creatures that are either human-like with wings and long noses or bird-like.

 

 

Scene: Sakata Kwaidô Maru by a waterfall lifting one bear aloft and trampling another

Publisher: ?

Date: c. 1840

Robinson: S1e.17

 

Scene: Gama Sennin surrounded by frogs

Publisher: ?

Date: c. 1840-1841

Robinson: unlisted

‘Robinson’ refers to listing in Kuniyoshi: The Warrior-Prints by Basil William Robinson (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1982) and its unpublished supplement.

 

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