Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Zou Yuan, the Dragon from the Forest (Shutsurinryū Sūen - 出林龍鄒淵) 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
9.75 in x 15 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Publisher Kagaya Kichiemon
(Marks 195 - seal 22-025)
Censor's seal: kiwame
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
British Museum
The National Museums of Scotland
The National Gallery, Prague
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden) via Ritsumeikan University This print is number 47 in Klompmakers' book Of Brigands and Bravery. She writes on page 150: "Kuniyoshi's design portrays a scene from chapter 67 when Sūen, adorned with pheasant feathers, is fighting with Sōsaku, a member of the Sō family. The Sō have stolen the horses that Kimmōken Dankeijū... has just purchased for the Ryōsanpaku bandits: the gang attacks the Sō village in order to retrieve their animals. Sūen's struggle with Sōsaku is not explicitly noted in the Shihu zhuan."
****
Zou Yuan is first mentioned in Outlaws of the Marsh in Chapter 49. He and his uncle are being enlisted to help break two men out of their imprisonment. "By dusk Sun returned with two bold fellows. The first was Zou Yuan. A Laizhou man, he loved gambling since childhood, and had always been an idler. But he was loyal and generous, and skilled with several weapons. He could be forceful and relentless, too, when the occasion arose. In the gallant fraternity he was known as the Dragon from the Forest."
****
The text reads: 登州登雲山に住す 孫新大嫂と心を合うせ解珍解宝を助て山陣にくはゝり其後曽家村の戦に曽頭市か正面の大軍へ走入三男曽索を擒捕
****
Illustrated in a full-page color reproduction in Of Brigands and Bravery: Kuniyoshi's Heroes of the Suikoden by Inge Klompmakers, Hotei Publishing, 1998, page 151.
Kagaya Kichiemon (加賀屋吉右衛門) (publisher)
warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)
Suikoden (水滸傳) (genre)