Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Tang Long, the Gold-Coin Spotted Leopard (Kinsenhyōshi Tōryū - 金銭豹子湯隆) from the series One Hundred and Eight Heroes of the Popular Shuihuzhuan (Tsūzoku Suikoden gōketsu hyakuhachinin no hitori - 通俗水滸伝豪傑百八人之一個)
ca 1827 – 1830
10 in x 14.25 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Publisher: Kagaya Kichiemon (Marks 194)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
British Museum
Ritsumeikan University
Tokyo National Museum
Oita Prefectural Art Center Inge Klompmakers wrote: "The gambler Kinsenhyōshi Tōryū wanders throughout the country for two years following his father's death. He eventually takes up his father's profession as a iron smith and starts to produce weapons. In chapter 53 Kokusenpū Riki... thinks that having a capable smith among their ranks would be very convenient for the Ryōsanpaku brigands and he invites Tōryū to accompany him to the hide-out. The iron smith needs little time to think things over: he and Riki set out immediately for Ryōsanpaku. Tōryū is a cousin of Kinsōshu Jonei..."
Quoted from Of Brigands and Bravery: Kuniyoshi's Heroes of the Suikoden by Inge Klompmakers, page 106.
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Tang Long is first mentioned in the Chinese version of this tale in Chapter 54 on page 871, volume II.
Li Kui noted an anvil, hammers, a forge, pincers, awls and pokers. "Must be a blacksmith," he thought. "We need a man like this in the fortress. Why don't I ask him to join?"[The bold type is our choice.] ****
"What's your name?" he queried.
"I'm called Tang Long. My father was a garrison officer in the prefecture of Yanan. Because he was [a] good ironsmith, he served directly under General Zhong. He died a few years ago. I'm mad about gambling, and I've knocked about a lot. I'm here as a blacksmith temporarily only to earn my keep. My real love is play with weapons. Since I'm marked all over with smallpox scars, people call me the Gold-Coin Spotted Leopard. May I ask, brother, what your name is?"
"Li Kui, Black Whirlwind of Liangshan Marsh."
Tang Long kowtowed twice. "I've heard so much about you. Who'd thought we would meet today!"
"You'll never prosper hanging around this place. Come with me to Liangshan and join us. We'll make you a chieftain."
"If you don't despise me and are willing to take me along, I'll gladly serve as your groom." He pledged himself to be Li Kui's younger brother, and Black Whirlwind accepted him.
Tōryū doesn't have to think long before he becomes one of their pack.
There is another copy of this print in the Lyon Collection, #449.
Tōryū is a cousin to Kinsōshu Jonei. (See #1036 in the Lyon Collection.)
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Illustrated:
1) in color in 原色浮世絵大百科事典 (Genshoku Ukiyoe Daihyakka Jiten), vol. 9, p. 12, #6.
2) in a small black and white reproduction in the Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum: Ukiyo-e Prints (3), #3117.
3) in a full-page in a color reproduction in Of Brigands and Bravery: Kuniyoshi's Heroes of the Suikoden by Inge Klompmakers, Hotei Publishing, 1998, #29, page 107.
Kagaya Kichiemon (加賀屋吉右衛門) (publisher)
warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)
Suikoden (水滸傳) (genre)