Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳)
(artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Utagawa Yoshijo (歌川芳女)
(artist )
The Syllable Ta た: Chiba Saburohei Mitsutada 千場三郎兵衛光忠 from the series Mirror of the True Loyalty of Each of the Faithful Retainers (Seichū gishin meimei kagami - 誠忠義臣名々鏡)
06/1857
9.5 in x 14.375 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
and Yoshi-jo ga (芳女画 - on inset)
Publisher: Horikoshi (Marks U077)
Censor's seal: Aratame
Date seal: 6/1857
The syllable ta (た) in diamond lower left
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
National Diet Library
National Museums of Scotland
Ako City Museum of History (via Ritsumeikan University)
Tōken Corporation The title of this series appears, written in white characters, on the black tsuba cartouche in the upper right along with the tomoe motif found somewhere on numerous Chūshingura related prints.
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The dentate pattern on this print is a give away that it is a Chūshingura-themed prints. But not all prints devoted to this story show these designs. "The distinctive dentate pattern on the coats is an iconographical motif which represents the inescapable progress of day and night, symbolizing unfailing loyalty."
Quoted from: 'Mitate kokkei Chūshingura. Hiroshige's humorous parodies of the Loyal Retainers' by Pierre Wijermans and Henk Herwig, fn. 32, p. 73.
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According to Yamada-shoten, in translation, the art in the inset at the top is by one of Kuniyoshi's daughters and the inscription is by another.
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This print is listed in Robinson as S90.31.
Horikoshi (掘越) (publisher)
warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)
Chūshingura (忠臣蔵 - 47 Rōnin) (genre)