Warrior triptychs

1818-1831

 

 

Title: Untitled

Description: The ghosts of Tomomori and the other Taira warriors slain at Dan-no-ura attacking Yoshitsune and Benkei in their ship

Publisher: Adzuma-ya Daisuke

Date: 1818

Robinson: T1

 

NOTE: This is generally considered to be Kuniyoshi’s earliest warrior triptych.

Title: Untitled

Description: The hero Raikô (Minamoto no Yorimitsu) in his sickness is tormented by the Earth Spider, one of whose legs he has cut off, but it is replaced by a human arm

Publisher: Nishimura-ya Yohachi

Date: c.1818-20.

Robinson: T1a

 

NOTE: This may be the left and middle sheets of a triptych

Title: Untitled

Description: Tadanobu in Yoshitsune’s armour, with his men, fighting Yokogawa Kakuhan and his monks amid a flight of arrows in the snows of Mount Yoshino

Publisher: Tsuru-ya Kihei

Date: c.1820

Robinson: T2

Title: Untitled

Description: Raikô’s retainers advancing on Kidô Maru, who raises his buffalo-hide disguise

Publisher: Ise-ya Rihei

Date: c. 1820

Robinson: T3

Title: Untitled

Description: The Earth-Spider and his demons attacking the sick Raikô and his retainers

Publisher: Yamamoto-ya Heikichi

Date: c.1820

Robinson: T4

Title: Untitled

Description: Ushiwaka Maru fighting Kumasaka Chôhan and his gang at the post station

Publisher: Yamamoto-ya Heikichi

Date: c.1820

Robinson: T5

 

NOTE: These are two sheets from a triptych.

Title: Untitled

Description: Kuriu Sayemon, Hata Rokurozayemon, Shinodzuka Iga no Kami, and Watari Shinzayemon, retainers of Nitta Yoshisada, breaking up a haunted temple

Publisher: Yamamoto-ya Heikichi

Date: c. 1820-1825

Robinson: T6

Title: Untitled

Description: The Nuye, shot down in a swirling black cloud by Gen Sammi Yorimasa, about to be dispatched by Ii no Hayata

Publisher: Yamamoto-ya Heikichi

Date: c. 1820-1825

Robinson: T7

 

NOTE: The nuye was a beast with the head of a monkey, the claws of a tiger, the back of a badger and a snake for a tail.  It spent its nights on the roof of the Emperor’s palace, causing him grave illness until it was slain by I no Hayata Hironoa.

Title: Hakone reigen izari no ada-uchi

Description: The revenge of Iinuma Katsugorô, with the apparition of his wife Hatsu-hana in the waterfall

Publisher: Nishimura-ya Yohachi

Date: c. 1825

Robinson: T8

Title: Yehon Gappôj tsuji

Description: Takahashi Kambô defending himself on a huge image against a swarm of attackers

Publisher: Tsuru-ya Kihei

Date: c. 1825

Robinson: T9

Title: Kiyomori Nyûdô Nunobiki no taki yûran Akugenda Yoshihira no rei Namba Jirô wo utsu

Description: The ghost of Akugenda Yoshihira striking down his killer, Namba Jirô, at the Nunobiki waterfall before Kiyomori and his suite

Publisher: Ise-ya Sanjirô

Date: c. 1825

Robinson: T10

Title: Chûshingura: gishi Takanawa hikitori no zu

Description: The Forty-seven Rônin, their task accomplished, retire to Takanawa; their leader Yuranosuke interviewing a priest of the temple (right)

Publisher: Kaga-ya Kichiyemon

Date: 1827

Robinson: T11

Title: Chûishingura: yo-uchi no zu

Description: The night attack in the Chûishingura; fight in the garden between the Forty-Seven Rônin and the retainers of Moronao, some of whom (left) are defending their master’s hiding place

Publisher: Kaga-ya Kichiyemon

Date: c. 1827-1830

Robinson: T12

Title: Chûshingura: yo-uchi no zu

Description: The night attack in the Chûshingura; the Forty-seven Rônin beginning to go over Moronao’s wall by rope ladders on either side of the main gate

Publisher: Kaga-ya Kichiyemon

Date: c. 1827-1830

Robinson: T13

Title: Chûshingura jûichi damme: Ryôgoku-bashi sei-soroi zu

Description: Eleventh act of the Chûshingura: the Forty-seven Rônin assembled at sunrise in the snow at Ryôgoku Bridge with a flight of wild geese overhead 

Publisher: Kaga-ya Kichiyemon

Date: c. 1827-1830

Robinson: T14

Title: Chûshingura: gishi Ryôgoku-bashi hikitori no zu

Description: The Forty-seven Rônin, having crossed

Ryôgoku ridge on their triumphant return, are interviewed by a mounted official (right)

Publisher: Kaga-ya Kichibei

Date: c. 1827-1830

Robinson: T15

Title: Untitled

Description: Preparations for the defense of the Horikawa Palace: Shidzuka-gozen is handed a naginata by one of her maids, while Tadanobu gets out his armor (left); Yoshitsune, armed with a naginata, hurries along the veranda (center); and Benkei, grasping an iron club, gives directions (right)

Publisher: Nishimura-ya Yohachi

Date: c. 1830

Robinson: T16

Title: Yashima ô-kassen

Description: Yoshitsune executing his ‘eight boat leap’ (hassô-tobi), cutting through a rudder and a wooden shield that have been thrown at him

Publisher: Ise-ya Rihei

Date: c. 1830

Robinson: T17

 

NOTE: This triptych is known with and without a black sky.

Title: Ujigawa kassen no zu (The Fording of the Uji River)

Description: Takatsuna leading, followed by Kagesuye and Shigetada

Publisher: Yezaki-ya Tatsuzô

Date: c. 1831

Robinson: T18

 

NOTE: This triptych was reissued about 1845 with the seal of the censor, Hama

‘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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