Original woodblock print, Triptych – Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861)-(The Match of Magic Toads Watching by Yoshikado, His Sister Takiyasha, Iga Jutaro, and Their Followers)- 1843-47(Tenpo14-Kouka 4) This ukiyo-e has a paper on the back. See Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: https://collections.mfa.org/objects/472792 Taira no Yoshikado who is a son of Taira no Masakado got a magic power and plotted the subversion of the state with his sister Takiyasha. In this artwork, he is watching the match of magic toads that are transformed from pebbles. Kuniyoshi was one of the pupils of Toyokuni and was a late bloomer than Kunisada and other pupils. Around the Bunsei-period, he published “108 Heroes of the Popular Suikoden”, and it created a sensation and it made him popular. He was called “Warrior-painter-Kuniyoshi”, and he became one of the most popular Ukiyo-e artists. Since then, he had created various attractive artworks that excelled in high drawing techniques, fascinated composition sense, and fantastic ideas and characters, without sticking to the framework of the Ukiyo-e. The signature is ‘Chou ōrō Kuniyoshi Kinga’ 朝桜楼国芳画 This ukiyo-e was originally 5 pieces in a row, but there are only 3 pieces. The son of silk dyer, little is known about Ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s early years, though he is said to have shown remarkable talent from a young age. At age 14 he was accepted to study woodblock printing under Utagawa Toyokuni I and would become one of his most successful students. In direct contrast to Hiroshige and Hokusai’s peaceful views of a scenic Japan published in the 1830s and ‘40s, the following decades saw a rise in popular taste for the fierce, fearsome and fantastical in ukiyo-e, which Kuniyoshi embraced. In 1814, he left Toyokuni’s studio to pursue a career as an independent artist. Initially, he had little success, selling tatami mats in order to support himself. His fortunes changed in 1827 with his dramatic series 108 Heroes of the Suikoden, and from that point on, he became known for portrayals of famous samurai and legendary heroes. Kuniyoshi also worked in in other print genres, producing landscapes and bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women).