Warrior triptychs

1846

Title: Satsuma no Kami Tadanori’s last poem forms the title of the triptych:

Yuki kure te konoshita kage wo yado to seha hana ya ko yoi no aruji nara mashi.

When the day is done I take a tree for my lodge. On my weary way, Lying under its broad boughs, A flower is my sole host.

Description: Satsuma no Kami Tadanori writing his last poem under the cherry trees on the evening before his death at Ichi-no-tani on March 21, 1184

Publisher: Yamaguchi-ya Tôbei

Date: 1846

Robinson: T173

Title: Depiction of a Hodgepodge of Revenge Stories (Fukushû kagami ni maze no ki, 復讐鑑烹雑之記)

Description: Composite picture of various dramatic stories of revenge

Publisher: Jingi Kikubei

Date: 1846

Robinson: T174

I am grateful to Robert Pryor for this image.

I am grateful to Robert Pryor for this alternate state of the above design.

Title: Battle of Kawanakajima: Battle of Kenshin and Shingen (Kawanakajima ô-kassen: Kenshin Shingen tachi-uchi no zu, 川中嶋大合戦 謙信 信玄 太刀打之圖)

Description: Personal encounter of Shingen and Kenshin in the river at the battle of Kawanakajima in 1560

Publisher: Yamashiro-ya Jimbei

Date: 1846

Robinson: T175

Series: Selection for the Eight Views (Mitate hakkei, 美盾八競)

Title: Glorious Sunset (seiran, 晴嵐)

Description: Miyamoto Musashi by a waterwheel knocking down Shirakura Dengoyemon and his men with a broken beam

Publisher: Iba-ya Kyûbei

Date: 1846

Robinson: T176

NOTE: The legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi (center) battling Shirakura Dengoemon (left) and his henchmen. The story usually relates how a jealous Dengoemon plots to kill Musashi by getting him drunk and locking him in a bath house without his sword. However, Musashi, wielding a huge broken beam, slays Dengoemon and his followers. Dengoemon’s daughter Itohagi (right) aids Musashi, with who she has fallen in love.

Another state of the above design published by Jôshû-ya Juzô

Series: Selection for the Eight Views (Mitate hakkei, 美盾八競)

Title: Descending Geese at Takadono (Takadono no rakugan, 高殿落雁)

Description: Masakado drinking sake on a terrace with Kikyô-no-maye and other ladies watching a flight of wild geese in the year 939

Publisher: Enshû-ya Matabei

Date: 1846

Robinson: T177

Series: Selection for the Eight Views (Mitate hakkei, 美盾八競)

Title: Evening Bell at Shôshazan (Shôshazan no banshô, 書冩山 晩鐘)

Description: Oniwaka Maru (鬼若丸) knocking down attackers on the steps of Enkyôji Temple in Harima Province

Publisher: Enshû-ya Matabei

Date: 1846

Robinson: T178

Series: Selection for the Eight Views (Mitate hakkei, 美盾八競)

Title: Evening Glow at Yashima (Yashima no sekishô, 屋島夕照)

Description: Benkei looking through a telescope (left) at Lady Tamamushi-no-maye (right) and the fan on the pole at the Battle of Yashima

Publisher: Iba-ya Sensaburô

Date: 1846

Robinson: T179

I am grateful to Louise Ariëns Kappers and C.P.J. van der Peet for this image.

Series: Selection for the Eight Views (Mitate hakkei, 美盾八競)

Title: Returning sails (kihan, 帰帆)

Description: Koman (小万) swimming in Lake Biwa with the Minamoto banner is attacked from the Taira barge by Sanemori

Publisher: Ise-ya Ichibei

Date: 1846

Robinson: T180

Another state of the above design

Series: Selection for the Eight Views (Mitate hakkei, 美盾八競)

Title: Autumn Moon at Kanzaki (Kanzaki no shûgwatsu, 神崎秋月)

Description: The boatman Matsuyemon (formerly Higuchi Jirô Kanemitsu) hurling a huge anchor

Publisher: Kojima-ya Jûbei (十 堀江 小嶋板), called “Koshima” in Robinson

Date: 1846

Robinson: T181

Series: Selection for the Eight Views (Mitate hakkei, 美盾八競)

Title: Evening Rain in the Gion Woods (Gionbayashi no ya-u, 祇園林夜雨)

Description: Taira no Tadamori (center) and the oil-thief (right)

Publisher: Iba-ya Sensaburô

Date: 1846

Robinson: T182

NOTE: This triptych is by Hiroshige—not Kuniyoshi. However it belongs to the same series— Mitate hakkei—as triptychs T176, T177, T178, T179, T180 and T181. Mitate hakkei may be translated as “Selection for the Eight Views”, “Parodies of the Eight Views” or “Allegory of the Eight Views”.

Title: Watônai Hunting a Tiger (Watônai tora-gari no zu, 和藤内虎狩之圖)

Description: Katô Kiyomasa (Watônai) attacking a huge tiger in the snow in Korea which has carried off one of his men; other soldiers in the background (right) force a tiger over a cliff

Publisher: Yamashiro-ya Jimbei

Date: 1846

Robinson: T183

Detail showing tiger with Japanese soldier in his mouth:

“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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