Artist: Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞, 1786–1865), signing as Utagawa Toyokuni III (豊国画) Title: Kumasaka Chōhan / Ushiwakamaru (熊坂長範・牛若丸) Subject: The young Ushiwakamaru (later Minamoto no Yoshitsune) repelling the brigand chief Kumasaka Chōhan during the night attack at the Akasaka post-station Date: circa 1848–1854 (Kaei era) Format: Ōban diptych, tate-e — two sheets, each approx. 36 × 24 cm Technique: Nishiki-e, Japanese Woodblock Prints Signature: Toyokuni ga (豊国画) on each sheet, with inscription ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Condition: Very good impression with fresh, well-preserved colour. The paper is firm and supple. Minor repairs overall, consistent with age. A rare design in good condition for a work of this period ---------------------------------------------------------------------- About the print Kunisada hangs the whole diptych on a single diagonal. Kumasaka's enormous naginata — the bandit's signature weapon — sweeps down from the right sheet, its long blue-edged blade arcing across the gutter and reaching almost into the left panel, so the two figures are bound by the very weapon that should divide them. Against that line the boy answers with his body: Ushiwakamaru is caught mid-leap, airborne and weightless in a streaming floral robe of red and lapis blue, sword drawn, evading the sweep with the unnatural lightness the legend gives him. The contrast is the whole point. On the right, Chōhan is built as sheer mass — a glowering, theatrically charged face above black fur and gilded scale armour, lacing and metalwork picked out in gold and worked up with fine embossing and a deluxe keyblock. On the left, the young hero is all line and air. The grey ground is left almost bare so nothing competes with the figures and the blade between them. It is a compact, muscular composition: Kunisada channelling the energy of the kabuki stage into a warrior print, but keeping the decorative polish of his late actor work. The Kumasaka–Ushiwakamaru encounter is one of the most beloved set-pieces of the Yoshitsune cycle, retold in Noh (Kumasaka) and kabuki and drawn by Kuniyoshi, Yoshitoshi, and others. Kunisada's diptych is very rare and not documented in western collections.