Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)

Sasai Ukon Masanao (笹井右近尚直 - actually Sakai Ukon Masanao [坂井右近政尚]) from the series Heroes of the Great Peace (Taiheiki eiyūden - 太平記英勇傳)

Print

---

Date:ca 1848 – 1849
Dimensions:9.75 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Artist's seal: kiri
Publisher: Yamamotoya Heikichi
(Marks 595 - seal 04-007)
Censor seals: Mera and Murata
Text: Ryūkatei Tanekazu (柳下亭種員)
Links British Museum
Tokyo Metropolitan Library
Muzeum Sztuki i Techniki Japońskiej Manggha, Krakow
Ashmolean Museum
Museum of Oriental Art, Venice (via Ritsumeikan University) Description:Sakai Masanao committed suicide on the battlefield. There is another print in this series of Masanao's son, Sakai Kyuzo, who also died on the same battlefield.

Masanao was a loyal supporter of Oda Nobunaga. When the latter was confronted by Asai Nagamasa (1545-73) and Asakura Yoshikage (1533-73) at the foot Mt. Hiei, he sent Masanao behind the enemy lines to capture the enemies food supplies. He succeeded to some extent by frightening away the soldiers who were guarding these. Masanao loaded the food onto a ship to take back to Nobunaga. While he was waiting for a second ship to take him and his men back too, the enemy counterattacked.

Here, in this print, Masanao is standing on a large tree trunk looking for the ship which would take him back to his master. Clearly it didn't come in time.

****

Illustrated:

1) in a full-page color reproduction in Heroes of the grand pacification: Kuniyoshi's Taiheiki eiyū den by Elena Varshavskaya, Hotei Publishing, 2005, p. 81.

Varshavskaya says: "The event that served as a subject matter for this print date back to 1570, when the feudal clans of the Asai and the Asakura formed an alliance with the monks of the famous Buddhist centre on Mt. Hieizan to fight against Oda Nobunaga. It was for this very operation that they were storing provisions. Soon after the episode illustrated in this print the Asai and the Asakura were routed by Oda Nobunaga...

Sakai Ukon Masanao is depicted here not long before his heroic death. He still appears as an embodiment of militant spirit. With a ferocious grimace and streaming hair that matches his furry back standard (sashimono), he confronts his enemies, his large naked sword in his right hand, while his left is in the militant gesture typical for the Buddhist protecting deities. Over the armour the warrior wears his sleeveless cloak (haori) which is adorned by a dragon, a symbol of invincible power. The boldness of the dragon's silhouette, the brightness of solid coulours correspond to the pictorial style of the Momoyama period... It is primarily the composition of the print that betrays Sakai Masanao's perilous conditions. The warrior stands of the inclined trunk of the giant pine-tree of Karasaki, deprived of the space to retreat. The idea to identify the place by its famous landmark, the Karasaki pine, considered to be one of the largest trees in the world, was derived by Kuniyoshi from Okada Gyōkuzan's illustrations to Ehon taikōki, but the motif is treated here differently. In Ehon taikōki the artist centres the composition on the tree that dominates the scene and serves as a natural barrier between the fighters. Kuniyoshi used the design from only one of two facing pages to create a close-up. Sakai Masanao's opponent is left beyond the print's borders, the tree is cropped and only its one upper branch and a bottom part of its trunk with the accentuated roughness of the age-old bark are in the frame. The resulting composition most effectively heightens the drama of the scene." (Ibid., p.80)

Verashkaya gives us this translation of the text:

Sasai Ukon Masanao was the father of Kyūzō Masayasu. He was a good retainer to the house of Ōta [Harunaga...]. At that time when [Ōta] Harunaga stood encamped against [the armies of] the Asai... and the Asakura... at the foot of Mt. Hieizan... for two months already the army provisions of rice of the Asakura house was being brought by the lake [Biwa] from Echizen province and piled at Katata bay. Seeing this, Sasai Masanao thought: "What if I capture the rice of the enemy?" He used two Katara residents - Ikai Jinsuke and Baba Mugojirō - as guides and, secretly embarking with a troop of about five hundred men, made his way across the waters to Katata bay. It was about midnight when he uttered a war cry and started a slaughter. The guards fo the house of Asakura never expected this and all fled in disorder. Then Ukon doing as he pleased loaded the rice supply on board and shipped it over to Harunga's camp. As there was no other vessel to take him back, he waited for that one to return. Meanwhile due to the reports of the fugitives who had escaped earlier, more than five thousand men from the two houses of Asai and Asakura accompanied by a number of ships lined up and at once attacked the coast. Surrounding Sasai who had but a small force they said: 'We shall smash him!' - and started to fight. And though Ukon's soldiers were brave, there was no help from the outside, and they all perished in battle. Masanao pronounced: 'Now, what have I come to! - and stabbing himself in the stomach he met his end.

2) in a full-page black and white reproduction in an article by Elena Varshavskaya in Andon 52, September, 1995, fig. 2, p. 24.

****

The text is by Ryūkatei Tanekazu (1807-58).
Related entities Yamamotoya Heikichi (山本屋平吉) (publisher)
warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)
Taiheiki (太平記) (genre)
Ryūkatei Tanekazu (柳下亭種員) (author)

---