Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Ushiwakamaru (牛若丸) in the center accompanied by Kisanda (鬼三太) on the left with Jōruri on the right: Minamoto no Ushiwaka-maru Yahagi no choja ga moto tachiyori tamau zu (源牛若丸矢矧長者が許立寄給圖)
1842 – 1846
29.63 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock
Signed on right panel: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
on middle and left panels: Chōōrō Kuniyoshi ga
朝櫻樓国芳画
Artist's seal: kiri
Publisher: Ibaya Kyūbei
(Marks 126 - seal 19-040)
Censor's seal: Watari
British Museum
National Diet Library "The love story of Ushiwakamaru and Princess Jōruri originated in the middle of the Muromachi period (1392-1568) when blind musicians (zatō) recited heroic tales to the accompaniment of a lute (biwa). Written versions of Jōruri Hime jūnidanzōshi (The Tale of Princess Jōruri in Twelve Episodes) are known from the end of the sixteenth century."
Ushiwakamaru has to leave the princess after only one night together.
Source and quoted from: The Hundred Poets Compared: A Print Series by Kuniyoshi, Hiroshige, and Kunisada by Henk J. Herwig and Joshua S. Mostow, Hotei Publishing, 2007, page 36.
****
The young Ushiwakamaru, who dominates the center panel, is wearing a robe decorated with a Minamoto family crest, the sasarindō. Kisanda, on the left, is holding up a lantern also decorated with this motif.
Mark Griffiths in his The Lotus Quest: In Search of the Sacred Flower on page 245 wrote: "The personal, rather than clan mon of Minamoto no Yoritomo was the sasarindō, a design in which three flowers of rindō (the Japanese gentian, Gentiana scabra or G. makinoi) sit above three leaves of the shrubby bamboo Sasa. The gentian was characteristic of the damp grassland flora of Southern Japan, while the bamboo was a signature plant of the North. This elegant posy is iconographic code for the shogun: the North is subjugated by the South; the country united under his military authority."
****
The curatorial files at the British Museum describe this triptych: "Ushiwaka-maru (centre) (Minamoto no Yoshitsune) and his retainer Kisanda (left) being brought to visit Joruri-hime by one of her maids (right), Joruri is playing the koto in the house in the background."
****
Ushiwakamaru, the name used by the young Yoshitsune, is accompanied here by Kisanda. In Yoshitsune: A Fifteenth-century Japanese Chronicle by Helen Craig McCullough describes on page 146 a time when Yoshitsune had caroused so hard one night that he was terribly hungover the next day. Feeling that his position was safe he had drunkenly dismissed his retainers and sent them home. However, he was awakened by an alarm that his enemies were marching toward him and soon to attack. Yoshitsune was in no condition to defend himself so he asked the women in the palace if there were any men nearby who he could depend on. There was only one, Kisanda, a lowly servant of incredible strength.
In need of a weapon Kisanda "...found an unlacquered bow with a thickly bound grip and a number of untreated bamboo arrows with swan feathers, standing fourteen fists above the head. He strung the bow triumphantly against a pillar and hastened to the main courtyard, twanging the string until it rang like a gong."
Later, "With no trouble whatever [Kisanda] fixed one of the fourteen-fist arrows to the four-man bow, pleased to find that the weapon suited him perfectly. He unbolted the gate, set it ajar, and dropped to one knee at the sight of enemy helmet studs gleaming temptingly in the bright starlight. One after another the arrows sped swiftly from his bow, felling five or six of Tosa's vanguard and killing two men on the spot. Tosa retreated cautiously.
"For shame, Tosa! Is that how you deputize for the Lord of Kamakura?" shouted Kisanda.
Tosa rode up behind the shelter of the gate. Who has been named Yoshitsune's commander for tonight? Identify yourself! Only a coward makes a sneak attack! I am Tosabō Shōshun, well known as a member of the Suzuki League and deputy of the Lord of Kamakura."
Kisanda remained silent, afraid of being scorned by the enemy because of his low rank."
****
Kisanda, sometimes transliterated as Kisanta, appears in other prints featuring Ushiwakamaru's training in the martial arts by the tengu. (See Lyon Collection #822.) Kisanda along with Benkei were Yoshitsune's two most loyal companions.
****
Illustrated in a large color reproduction in Kuniyoshi: The Warrior Prints by B. W. Robinson, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1982, pl. 45. T108.
Ibaya Kyūbei (伊場屋久兵衛) (publisher)
Musashibō Benkei (武蔵坊弁慶) (role)
Minamoto no Yoshitsune (源義経) (role)