Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
From the series One Hundred and Eight Heroes of the Popular Shuihuzhuan All Told (Tsūzoku Suikoden gōketsu hyakuhachinin no hitori - 通俗水滸伝豪傑百八人之一個): Seishushosei Shōjō (聖手書生蕭讓) above Shinkōtaiho Taisō (神行太保戴宗)
ca 1825
9.75 in x 29 in (Overall dimensions) woodblock print
Signed: Chōōrō Kuniyoshi ga
朝櫻楼国芳画
Publisher: Kagaya Kichiebei (Marks 194 - seal 22-026?)
Censor's seal: kiwame
British Museum
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston These are illustrated as numbers 53a & b in Klompmakers' book Of Brigands and Bravery: Kuniyoshi's Heroes of the Suikoden, p. 135.
Shinkōtaiho Taisō (Dai Zong/ Tai Chung/ Tai Sung) helping his comrade Seishushosei Shōjō (Xiao Rang/ Siao Jung/ Hsiao Jang), his sword suspended from his mouth, to descend a rope hanging from the castle wall. The corpse of one of the enemy dead trapped between Taisō and a pine tree. Complete diptychs and triptychs from this set are very scarce. See Robinson, The Warrior Prints, #25 and 58.
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The curatorial files at the British Museum give this as the subject of this diptych: "Seishu Shojo Yogu descending castle wall, with Shingyo Taiso and enemy."
This composition is listed as #197 of the Kuniyoshi's in 1916 in A Catalogue of Japanese & Chinese Woodcuts Preserved in the Sub-department of Oriental Prints and Drawings in the British Museum by Laurence Binyon on page 548: "TWO HEROES OF THE SUIKODEN. Diptych arranged vertically. In the lower sheet Taisō, crushing an enemy against a tree-trunk, holds the rope by which his comrade Shōjō, having climbed a willow outside the castle, lets himself down within the wall. Each print is signed, Chō-ō-rō Kuniyoshi gwa.... Publisher: Kagaya, Riōgoku." This composition was from the Arthur Morrison collection.
warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)
Kagaya Kichiemon (加賀屋吉右衛門) (publisher)
Kakemono-e - 掛物絵 (genre)
Suikoden (水滸傳) (genre)