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KUNIYOSHI Ichiyusai. (1798-1861)
Ôshô. 1853.
- Category
- Japanese | Warriors War And Legend
- Series
- A mirror of The Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety.
- Publisher
- Izumi-ya Ichibei.
oban yoko-e, 36.4 cm × 26.3 cm
Good impression, very good colour and condition.
Osho (Wang Hsiang) was a public official who lived in the 3rd century A.D. One day in winter, his stepmother expressed a desire for fresh fish even though all the rivers were frozen. Osho lay down on the surface of the ice until the warmth of his body caused the ice to melt and fish sprang forth from the hole on the surface.
Signed Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi ga.
£850
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Tsukioka Kōgyo 1869-1927
Tōsen. The Chinese Ship.
- Category
- Japanese | Warriors War And Legend
- Series
- One Hundred Noh Plays
- Publisher
- Matsuki Heikichi (Daikokuya)
oban tate-e, 26.0 cm × 38.0 cm
Excellent impression, colour and condition.
The print depicts So Kei and his children on a boat to China. So Kei is taken prisoner during a maritime battle between China and Japan and forced into the service of Hakozaki, where he takes wife and raises two children. But he left behind two children in China prior to his incarceration, who thirteen years later, travel to Japan with a ransom for their father’s release. Once reunited, Hakozaki is moved by the children’s love and permits So Kei to return to China. But Hakozaki will not allow the Japanese children to return with them. The decision to stay with his Japanese children or leave with his Chinese children is too great, So Kei tries to kill himself by jumping from a boulder. However the children implore him by grasping his sleeves. Hakozaki, moved by the filial devotion, relents and allows So Kei and all his children to leave together.
Signed Kōgyo with artist’s seal. Printed February 1923.
£150
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Tsukioka Kōgyo 1869-1927
Shakkyō. The Stone Bridge.
- Category
- Japanese | Warriors War And Legend
- Series
- One Hundred Noh Plays
- Publisher
- Matsuki Heikichi
oban diptych, 53.0 cm × 39.0 cm
Superb impression, with extensive metallic pigments and bokashi. On thick, deluxe paper. Excellent colour and condition.
The priest Jakushō travels to China and India to visit places associated with the Buddha. He arrives at a stone bridge, whereupon a child appears and tells him that the Pure Land of bodisattva Monju lies on the other side. The boy says that crossing this bridge is treacherous for humans, but predicts that if the priest stays by the bridge, the bodhisattva will come to him. Whereupon, two lions, messengers of Manjuri Bodhisattva, appear and dance with fragrant peony flowers. In Now theatre, the shishimai or lion dance is a highlight of the play Shakkyō. Signed Kōgyo with artist's seal.
£250
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YOSHITOSHI Tsukioka. (1839-1892)
Inamura Promontory moon at daybreak. 8/1886
- Category
- Japanese | Warriors War And Legend
- Series
- One Hundred Aspects of the Moon.
- Publisher
- Akiyama Buemon.
- Engraver
- Yamamoto.
oban tate-e, 26.4 cm × 36.9 cm
Very good impression with strong woodgrain. Excellent colour, with oxidation in the lower sky and very good condition.
Nitta no Yoshisada offers his treasured sword to the sea gods at dawn. In 1333, the general ended his allegiance with the Hojo clan and raised an army of twenty thousand men to restore the exiled emperor, Go-Diago, to the castle in Kamakura. His military campaign is impeded when he finds himself trapped at the Inamura Promontary. The Hojo army have fortified both the cliffs and the sea with war ships. As day breaks, Yoshisada offers his sword and the tide recedes, carrying with it the ships and archers, creating a wide expanse of sand, and a passage way for Yoshisada to advance on Kamakura.
Printed 8/1886. Signed: Yoshitoshi. Seal: Taiso. ref: Stevenson, John, "Yoshitoshi's One Hundred Aspects of the Moon", Redmond, WA: San Francisco, Graphic Society, 1992, - plate 39. Reference Impression.
£580
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KUNIYOSHI Ichiyusai. (1798-1861)
The Sorceress Takiyasha. 8/1852.
- Category
- Japanese | Warriors War And Legend
- Series
- The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido.
- Publisher
- Sumiyoshi-ya Masagorô
oban tate-e, 25.5 cm × 36.2 cm
Excellent impression with strong woodgrain; the black rock and tree glisten with mica to create the illusion of frost. Pristine colour. Small repaired wormage above print number seal and one lower right, otherwise very good condition.
In the mountain snow of Ashida, the sorceress Takiyasha performs a magic ritual, clenching a torch between her teeth, a mirror around her neck and a sword in her right hand. She is followed by her henchman Araimaru who brandishes the head of one of her victims on a stick. Her short hair belies her former vocation as a nun before she resorted to witchcraft.
There are many puns on word and image in this print. The horses around the title cartouche pun Soma, the name of her ancestral home, and geta is a pivotal word for her high clogs and the station Ashida. The bird shape cartouche for the landscape is derived from the name Uto Yasukata, a loyal retainer killed by Takiyasha and her brother. Utoysukata is also the name of a bird in Northern Japan.
Signed Ichiyûsai Kuniyoshi ga. Censor seals Kinugasa, Murata, Rat 8.
Literature; Pg.70-71 The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido. Sarah E Thompson. IBSN 978-0-7649-48893
£320
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Yoshimoto GESSO (1881-1936)
Dragon and Mount Fuji. c.1910
- Category
- Japanese | Warriors War And Legend
- Series
- Japanese Scenes on Tanzaku.
- Publisher
- Nishinomiya.
tanzaku, 9.0 cm × 34.0 cm
Excellent impression, colour and condition.
An iconic subject in Japanese art of the dragon emerging from a thick cloud of black smoke and ascending Mount Fuji, heavens-bound. The symbol is an auspicious one, suggesting good fortune, and a reference to the deity that is said to live in the mountain. Gesso sets his design in the narrow tanzaku format. Signed Gesso.
£130
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YOSHITOSHI Tsukioka. (1839-1892)
Ii no Hayata Kills the Nue at the Imperial Palace. 1890.
- Category
- Japanese | Warriors War And Legend
- Series
- New Forms of Thirty-six Strange Things.
- Publisher
- Sasaki Toyokichi.
- Engraver
- Chokuzan.
ōban tate-e, 24.1 cm × 36.0 cm
Very good impression with three colour cartouche, embellished with black lacquer and mica. Very good colour. Some trimming, otherwise very good condition.
Ii no Hayata grapples with the nue, a chimera-like monster which had a monkey's head, badger's body, tiger's legs and a snake for a tail.
The emperor had trouble sleeping because of strange bird-like screams and abrasive scratching above the imperial palace. Petrified, he demanded that Lord Minamoto no Yorimasa discover the cause. In the thick of night, the commander saw a black cloud form over the palace, and shot an arrow into the darkness. A creature fell from the sky, writhing on the ground with an arrow piercing its neck. It was left to Yorimasa's henchman, Ii no Hayata, to finish the beast off with a dagger. Signed Yoshitoshi. Plate 10 John Stevenson 'Yoshitoshi's Strange Tales'
£950
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Hideo Takeda (1944-
Minamoto Clan at the Dan-no-Ura Battle
- Category
- Japanese | Warriors War And Legend
- Series
- Genpei
- Publisher
- Self published
large silkscreen, 52.8 cm × 66.4 cm
Excellent impression, colour and condition. Edition 77/200
From Hideo Takeda's series depicting the Genpei Wars (1180-1185) which is without doubt one of the great modern series of Japanese Prints. He exhibited at the British Museum in The Japanese Cartoon Tradition, 1993.The Genji (Minamoto) clan, led by Minamoto no Yoshitsune, defeated the Taira (Heike) clan at the battle of Dan-no-Ura in 1185. The battle was the last one between the Genji and the Heike. Signed Hideo Takeda Edition 77/200
Reference. Takeda Hideo and the Japanese Cartoon Tradition at The British Museum
£1750
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Hideo Takeda (1944-
Genpei No. 1 - Strong Bow of Minamoto Tametomo
- Category
- Japanese | Warriors War And Legend
- Series
- Genpei
- Publisher
- Self published
large silkscreen, 53.0 cm × 70.0 cm
Excellent impression, colour and condition. Edition 48/200
From Hideo Takeda's series depicting the Genpei Wars (1180-1185) which is without doubt one of the great modern series of Japanese Prints. He exhibited at the British Museum in The Japanese Cartoon Tradition, 1993 and his works are in the permanent collection. Signed Takeda. Edition 48/200.
£1750
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YOSHITOSHI Tsukioka. (1839-1892)
Sumiyoshi full moon. Lord Teika.
- Category
- Japanese | Warriors War And Legend
- Series
- One Hundred Aspects of the Moon.
- Publisher
- Akiyama Buemon.
- Engraver
- Enkatsu.
oban tate-e, 24.2 cm × 35.6 cm
Very good impression, embellished with black lacquer. Very good colour and condition.
Lord Teika, a celebrated poet from the 13th century, has fallen asleep on the verandah of a Shinto shrine at Sumiyoshi. The god of poetry would appear in a dream to those who spent a night there. The deity emerges from a black cloud: a superb technique on the part of the printer called atenashi bokashi, borderless printing. The shades of grey in the old man's robes have been printed to give the effect of shadows and the forehead bulges like a peach indicating his wisdom as an immortal.
Signed Yoshitoshi, seal Taiso. Engraver seal; Yamamoto.
Reference: Plate 53,Yoshitoshi's One Hundred Aspects of the Moon. John Stevenson. ISBN 978-0963221803
£450
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YOSHITOSHI Tsukioka. (1839-1892)
The Death Stone of Nasu Moor. 1891.
- Category
- Japanese | Warriors War And Legend
- Series
- New Forms of Thirty-six Strange Things.
- Publisher
- Sasaki Toyokichi.
- Engraver
- Chokuzan.
oban tate-e, 24.3 cm × 36.2 cm
Very good impression of the first edition. Good colour. Slight trimming, otherwise very good condition.
The emperor became ill after his favourite concubine, Tanamo no mae, bewitched him with black magic. When asked to approach the altar to pray for his recovery, she reveals her true nature as the nine tailed fox and scampers off to Nasu Moor. The emperor sends the master archer Kuranosuke in hot pursuit. She was shot and turned into the death stone known as sessho seki. Anyone who touched it or even looked at it would die.
The ghost of Tanamo no mae appears here on the desolate moor before the death stone. Her outermost garment is decorated with spider's webs and cherry blossom, a symbol of female entrapment and the rust orange undergarment belies her nature as the fox spirit. The two geese show that death is present and appear to be struggling in flight. Legend had it that birds would die when flying over the rock.
Ref Plate 23. Page 128 Yoshitoshi's Strange Tales. John Stevenson, Hotei Publishing.
£680