UTAGAWA YOSHITORA — Togashi Ienao of Kaga · the Lord of the Ataka Barrier · Dai Nihon Rokujūyoshō · Edo musha-e, c. 1866 The Togashi clan — forever bound to the legend of the Ataka Barrier, the tale immortalised in the Nō play "Ataka" and the kabuki "Kanjinchō." Series: Dai Nihon Rokujūyoshō (大日本六十余将) — "The Sixty-odd Great Generals of Japan" Prints from this series are rarely found on western market. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Condition A well-registered impression in the full Bakumatsu palette: a deep aniline blue dominates the figure's voluminous robe, set against the violet karakusa-patterned under-kimono and the lacquer-black of the brazier and the towering eboshi cap. The sheet shows the expected toning and handling of a print of this date; some edge irregularity and a chip at the upper margin are visible in the image. Overall good condition. ------------------------------------------------------- A Man Caught Between Loyalty and Suspicion Togashi Ienao, holder of the office of Kaga no Suke (vice-governor of Kaga), sits before a brazier and drives the fire-tongs into a heap of glowing charcoal, glaring out at the viewer with a thunderous, knotted brow. Yoshitora gives us not a battlefield but a moment of brooding — a powerful man turning something over in his mind. The biographical text above, composed by Shuntei Keikaku, supplies the drama: Ienao's younger brother falsely claimed that Ienao had let Minamoto no Yoshitsune and his fugitive party slip through the Ataka Barrier; the lie reached Minamoto no Yoritomo, and Ienao's lands were stripped from him. About the Series Dai Nihon Rokujūyoshō gathers more than sixty of the great generals of Japanese history, one heroic figure assigned to each province, each sheet pairing Yoshitora's bold half-length or seated portrait with a printed biographical essay. Designed in the mid-1860s, the series is a showcase of late-Edo musha-e at full strength — vivid pigments, dense pattern, and the muscular line Yoshitora inherited directly from his teacher Kuniyoshi, the supreme master of the warrior print.