Kuniyoshi’s Analogies for the Six Conditions of Nature

(Rokuyôsei Kuniyoshi jiman, 六様性国芳自慢)

Publisher: Uo-ya Eikichi

Printed 1860 from designs of c. 1835

This series pairs mythical and historic people with auspicious and inauspicious days in Japanese astrology.  The prints in this series are each about 14 by 10 inches (36 by 25 centimeters), a size known as ôban.

 

Day: Butsumetsu (佛滅, a most unlucky day)   

Character: Hori Ran Maru spearing Yasuda Sakubei 

Robinson: S93.1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day: Senshô (先勝, a day for official business)         

Character: Inagawa Yoshimoto in his last fight at Okehazama

Robinson: S93.2

 

 

 

Day: Taian (大安, a good day for traveling )     

Character: Kaidômaru (Kintarô) by a waterfall

Robinson: S93.3

 

I am grateful to Ward Pieters for locating this image.

 

 

 

Day: Sembû (先負, not a very lucky day)    

Character: Mongaku Shônin doing penance under waterfall with two acolytes of the god Fudô above 

Robinson: S93.4

 

 

Day: Shakku (赤口, not a good day)        

Character: Ômori Hikoshichi sees the reflection of beautiful woman as a demon

Robinson: S93.5

 

I am grateful to Ward Pieters for locating this image.

 

 

 

Day: Tomobiki (友引, a bad days for funerals)      

Character: Sasaki Takatsuna being shown crossing place of the Inland Sea by fisherman Tôdayû.  Although the yellow panel adjoining the main cartouche reads Sasaki Takatsuna, this legend is in reality about Moritsuna.

Robinson: S93.6

 

 

 

This is a less labor-intensive state of the above design (note the title cartouche), which almost invariably means a later printing.  I am grateful to Ward Pieters for locating this image.

 

“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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