Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Gongsun Sheng, Single Purity (Nyūunryū Kōsonshō -入雲龍公孫勝) 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)
1827 – 1830
9.75 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) color woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Publisher: Kagaya Kichiebei - the top of this seal is barely visible at the bottom of the print right below the figure's left foot -(Marks 194)
Censor's seal: kiwame
British Museum
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Agency for Cultural Affairs
Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art
Tokyo National Museum
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - Yoshitoshi example from 1865
Royal Museums of Art and History, Belgium (via Cultural Japan)
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, Leiden) via Ritsumeikan University
Los Angeles County Museum of Art Inge Klompmakers wrote in Of Brigands and Bravery on page 60: "Nyūunryū Kōsonshō is a Daoist priest with supernatural powers. He describes himself as "extremely skilled in the magic of calling winds and crying out for rains and harnessing mists and in riding the clouds," thus his name 'Dragon in the clouds, Kōsonshō is one of the robbers who ambushes the convoy carrying the governor's birthday present led by Seimenjū Yōshi... Thereafter he joins up with the bandits of Ryōsanpaku. The gang's numerous victories are thanks to Kōsonshō's magical abilities.
This print portrays Kōsonshō during one of the many occasions in the novel when he invokes a stormy wind with his magic short sword. The background is sinister and dark, the magician is surrounded by high waves and a dragon."
****
We first encounter this character in Chapter 15 of Outlaws of the Marsh, p. 231. Gongsun appears as a Taoist priest who wants to see the ward chief. He is offered rice and/or money to go away, but doesn't want either. He just wants to speak with the ward chief, Chao Gai. A struggle ensues and Gongsun gets the better of his opponents. Finally he is taken before Chao Gai who finds him most civil and asks him to join him in having some tea. The ward chief asks him his name and where he comes from.
"My family name is Gongsun, my given name Sheng. In the Taoist order I am called Single Purity. I was born in Jizhou Prefecture. Since childhood I have loved playing with weapons, and have become quite skilled in many of them, so people call me Gentleman Gongsun Sheng. I have also studied Taoist lore. Because I can summon the wind and bring the rain, ride the mists and drive the clouds, in the fraternity of gallant men I'm nicknamed Dragon in the Clouds. I have long known of the eminent Ward Chief Chao of East Bank, Yuncheng County, but I have never had the good fortune of meeting you. In honor of making your acquaintance, and by way of introducing myself, I would like to present you with a hundred thousand strings of cash worth of gold and jewels. I wonder whether the Ward Chief would accept?"[More of this quote is to follow from page 233.]
****
The Sword, the Dragon and Water
Willem van Gulik in his book Irezumi wrote extensively about this subject.
"This phenomenon of protection afforded by (seemingly) opposing elements, has meanwhile become a recurrent and familiar theme. The relation of the elements water and metal, both opposed to fire, as expressed in the trinity dragon tattoo... [This] contrast-harmony of metal and water as symbolized by sword and dragon is perhaps most distinctively expressed by the so-called kurikara-ryō symbol, represented by a dragon coiled around a swordblade. The combination is said to be connected with the legend of the stormgod Susa-no-o killing the dragon in whose tail he finds the heavenly sword which he presents to his sister, the Sun-goddess Amaterasu. An allusion to this legendary episode may well may well be represented in fig. 106, depicting the hero Ju-unryū Kōsonshō, from the famous Suikoden print series by Kuniyoshi. The kurikara-ryō is also said to be generally accepted as the symbolization of the union of the yin and yang principles. As such, it may serve as a protective and auspicious emblem, often met with as an ornamental design... The water (dragon) and metal (sword) are attracted to each other, may easily be explained in terms of their relation in the cycle of the five elements. In this cycle... metal and water stand in a position diametrically opposed to fire. Furthermore, they are closely related in that metal generates water in the mutual production order of the five elements. It is therefore quite natural that the metal-water combination may be so distinctly encountered in the kurikara-ryō representation."
The choice of bold type is our own. (JSV)
****
The text reads: 蘇州の産 一名一清先生又清道人と称す 二仙山羅真人に幻術を学び怪風を呼び妖雨を起して石碣村に討手の衆兵を悩す
****
There is another copy of this diptych at the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, Ontario.
****
Illustrated:
1) in a full-page color reproduction in Of Brigands and Bravery: Kuniyoshi's Heroes of the Suikoden by Inge Klompmakers, Hotei Publishing, 1998, by Inge Klompmakers, #10, page 61.
2) in color in Yoshitoshi's Strange Tales by John Stevenson, Hotei Publishing, 2005, page 16.
warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)
Kagaya Kichibei (加賀屋吉兵衛) (publisher)
Yūrei-zu (幽霊図 - ghosts demons monsters and spirits) (genre)
Suikoden (水滸傳) (genre)