KUNISADA • 景清伝 • 三枚組 • 日本木版画 • 浮世絵 - Japan - Edo Period (1600-1868)

Artist: Utagawa Kunisada / Toyokuni III (歌川国貞・三代豊国, 1786–1865)
Title: Untitled kabuki triptych — no series cartouche. Known from the identifying role cartouches:
– Right: 伊勢ノ三郎義盛 Ise no Saburō Yoshimori
– Centre: 仁作実ハ三保谷四郎 Nisaku, in reality Mionoya Shirō / 娘おやま実ハ…はつしも the daughter Oyama, in reality Hatsushimo
– Left: 修行者…実ハ景清 the pilgrim, in reality Kagekiyo
Subject: Kabuki scene drawn from the Genpei cycle — the Taira champion Akushichibyōe Kagekiyo in disguise, with the Minamoto banner in his hands, confronted by Genji partisans

Format: Ōban triptych — three sheets, each ca. 36 × 24.5 cm (overall ca. 36 × 73.5 cm)
Technique: Nishiki-e (full-colour woodblock print) on hōsho paper
Date: ca. 1856 (Ansei 3)
Signature: 豊国画 Toyokuni ga, in the red toshidama cartouche, on all three sheets
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Condition: Very good impression with very good, fresh colour throughout. The paper is firm with a subtle texture. Minor soiling; Minor scuff. Otherwise clean and presentable. Please refer to the images for full detail

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About the print

Of all the confrontations in the Genpei wars, none held the Edo stage quite like the shikoro-biki. At the battle of Yashima, the Taira champion Akushichibyōe Kagekiyo seized the neck-guard of the Genji warrior Mionoya Shirō Kunitoshi as he fled; Mionoya pulled away, the iron plates tore loose in Kagekiyo's fist, and the two men — enemies, but connoisseurs of strength — stood apart and laughed, one at the arm, the other at the neck. The episode was recycled through generation after generation of Kagekiyo dramas, and its two protagonists became a fixed pair in the popular imagination.

This triptych catches them not on the battlefield but in the kabuki playwright's favourite condition: incognito. Kunisada gives each figure a cartouche of the jitsu wa type — "in reality" — the convention that lets a play unmask its characters one by one. At left, a wandering ascetic in a grey travelling robe, an oi pack-box strapped to his back and straw-corded sandals on his feet, is in reality Kagekiyo; the great white banner he grips bears the bamboo-and-gentian crest of the Minamoto, a trophy in the hands of the man sworn to destroy them. In the centre, the commoner Nisaku — blue-and-white patterned kimono, pale head-cloth, a white cloth twisted through his fist — is in reality Mionoya Shirō, and the young woman behind him in green and rose, a feather ornament in her hair, passes as his daughter Oyama while being in truth Hatsushimo. At right, Ise no Saburō Yoshimori, Yoshitsune's retainer, draws his blade in a resplendent costume of hexagonal kikkō medallions and stencilled indigo — no disguise needed.