Artist: Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) Title: Gishi ningyō (義士人形), Figures of the Loyal Retainers Subject: The rōnin fighting Kira's retainers during the night raid, with a half-dressed woman on the ground Technique: Woodblock print (nishiki-e) Format: Ōban tate-e triptych, three sheets complete each approx 25*37cm Date: 2nd month of Ansei 3 (1856) Publisher: Ebi-ya Rinnosuke Signature: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga (一勇斎国芳画) on each sheet, with red paulownia (kiri) seal Seals: Aratame and date seal (Dragon, 2nd month) Named figures (cartouches): Sadō Shunsai (茶道春斎), Horibe Yasubei Taketsune (堀部安兵衛武庸), Tomimori Sukeemon (富森祐右衛門), Waku Hantayū (和久半太夫), Shimizu Ikkaku (清水一角) _______________________________________________________________________________ CONDITION Impression & Colours: A well registered impression across all three sheets, with the keyblock holding the fine work throughout — The colour is vivid and unfaded. Paper: Excellent. Three separate clean sheets, each with the actor cartouches, signature, publisher's mark and seals present. Age-appropriate light toning to the paper; normal handling wear at the extreme edges. ____________________________________________________________ About the Print On a winter night in early 1703, forty-seven former retainers of Lord Asano Naganori broke into the Edo mansion of Kira Yoshinaka, the official whose insult had driven their master to draw his sword in the shogun's castle and forfeit his life. This triptych takes us inside that raid. The cartouches name real participants, not the stage aliases of the Chūshingura plays. On the rōnin side are Horibe Yasubei, the most celebrated swordsman of the band, and Tomimori Sukeemon. Against them stand Kira's defenders: the tea master Shunsai, Waku Hantayū, and Shimizu Ikkaku, whose legendary last stand against the rōnin became a story in its own right. A half-dressed woman, roused from sleep and thrown to the floor, gives the scene its sense of sudden chaos inside a sleeping household. The print dates from 1856, late in Kuniyoshi's career. That year Edo was gripped by a craze for iki-ningyō, life-size "living dolls" shown in exhibitions at Asakusa, and Kuniyoshi designed several "ningyō" series in response. The title Gishi ningyō places this triptych in that moment. The figures show Kuniyoshi working on the human body in a new way. Look at the eyes: each man has his own gaze and temperament, and the faces, while boldly drawn, clearly separate one character from the next. Shock, grim concentration and ferocity are all readable at a glance. Behind them, screens patterned with paulownia leaves and the lines of the tatami and ceiling beams pull the eye deep into the room, giving the composition real depth across all three sheets. The colours and paper are beautifully preserved, a museum-quality impression of a dramatic late work.