Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Ma Lin (Tettekisen Barin - 鉄笛仙馬麟) from the series One of the 108 Heroes of the Popular Water Margin (Tsūzoku Suikoden gōketsu hyakuhachinin no hitori - 通俗水滸傳濠傑百八人一個)
ca 1827 – 1830
9.625 in x 14 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
British Museum
Tokyo National Museum
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art
Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium (via Cultural Japan)
Art Institute of Chicago "In this composition Barin is fighting with an enormous monkey and balances a deer high above him as if he is about to hurl it at the monkey's head. This scene takes place in chapter 52 when the enemy general Kōren has conjured up an array of wolves, tigers, strange animals and poisonous reptiles to defeat the Ryōsanpaku heroes..."
Illustrated in color and quoted from: Of Brigands and Bravery: Kuniyoshi's Heroes of the Suikoden by Inge Klompmakers, Hotei Publishing, 1998, p. 108.
Kagaya Kichiemon (加賀屋吉右衛門) (publisher)
Suikoden (水滸傳) (genre)