Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Kihan (Returning Sails - 帰帆)/Mitate hakkei (美盾八競) from the drama Nunobiki-no-taki
1846
28.5 in x 14 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Artist's seal: kiri
Publisher: Iseya Ichiemon
(Marks 143 - seal 24-068)
Waseda University - right panel
Waseda University - middle panel
Waseda University - left panel
Portland Art Museum
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - story of Koman in the Kisokaidō series
New York Public Library
British Museum
National Museum of Scotland
Lyon Collection - Evening Bell at Shoshazan triptych
Chiba City Museum of Art It may not be immediately obvious to the viewer, but this triptych is related to another triptych in the Lyon Collection - #1239. It was published by a different publisher, but comes from the same series. See the link above.
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A triptych showing Koman (小万), the widowed daughter of a Lake Biwa farmer, swimming with the white banner of the Genji in her teeth towards the Taira barge of Munemori. On being picked up and finding where she was she jumped overboard but not before Sanemori cut her arm off with the banner wrapped round it.
For the full story see Pointers And Clues To The Subjects Of Chinese And Japanese Art, Sampson Low Marstone & Co. Ltd., Will Edmunds, 1934, p. 451.
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The curatorial files at the Portland Museum of Art give a completely different interpretation of this triptych than the one given above. However, we believe that the earlier analysis of this scene is probably the correct one. Koman is a woman and not a Minamoto warrior. (JSV)
"This triptych is one of a series in which Kuniyoshi illustrates episodes from Japanese history, placing them in scenic spots at Lake Biwa. The titles of the prints are taken from poems, Eight Views of Biwa, which are in turn based on an older series of Chinese poems.
Two great warrior clans, the Taira and the Minamoto, vied for power in the third quarter of the twelfth century, engulfing much of the country in civil war. Kuniyoshi illustrates an episode from than era. The Minamoto warrior Koman, who had been entrusted with the white banner of the Minamoto armies, plunged into Lake Biwa in an effort to escape pursuit. By chance, he was discovered by a Taira general who was on the lake for a pleasure excursion. Koman refused to be rescued, so the Taira captain cut off his arm to capture the banner."
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The Japan Arts Council wrote about the bunraku play Genpei Nunobiki no Taki in December 2023: "Saitō Sanemori, a military commander of the Heike family, cuts off the arm of a woman named Koman, who tries to escape by swimming across Lake Biwa while raising the white Genji flag (flag of truce). Meanwhile in Koman’s parents’ house, Aoi Gozen, who is pregnant by the late Kiso Yoshikata, a military commander of the Genji family, is being sheltered. Under an order from Taira no Kiyomori, Sanemori and Senoo Jūrō arrive at the house to investigate whether Aoi Gozen’s newborn baby is a boy. As the interrogation comes to a head, Sanemori cooks up an explanation to sort out the difficult situation. He reports to Senoo that the arm, which was found and brought back by Koman’s father Kurosuke and her son Tarokichi, thought to be born from Aoi Gozen. After Senoo leaves, Sanemori explains the reason for his having cut off Koman’s arm. Sanemori’s formidable appearance as a vigorous warlord, a sense of the vanity of life from the life of Sanemori; precisely because his last moments had already been infamous, the surprising truth revealed by the villain Senoo, and the complex pattern of human relationships among the characters that becomes increasingly clear as Tarokichi grows up."
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But the best description is probably one of a completely different print by Kuniyoshi
Sarah Thompson gives the clearest and most cogent description of this event when describing Kuniyoshi's 'Ōtsu: Koman' print from the series 'The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaido'.
"The fictional events depicted in this print are from the kabuki play The Minamoto and Taira Clans at the Nunobiki Waterfall (Genpei Nunobiki no taki), but they are not actually enacted onstage. Rather, they are described in a dramatic recital that is one of the high points of the play.
Following the initial defeat of the Minamoto clan by the Taira clan in the 1150s, Lady Aoi, the pregnant wife of a Minamoto general, goes into hiding in the home of hte farmer Kurosuke. Kurosuke's daughter Koman is married to a Minamoto retainer and has been entrusted with the precious white banner of the Minamoto, which symbolizes the clan's hope for a future revival. When Taira soldiers... try to take it from her , she jumps into Lake Biwa and swims away. Unfortunately, the boat that picks her up... is also manned by the Taira, and when she defies them, she is killed. However, the Taira retainer Saitō Sanemori is secretly in sympathy with the Minamoto. He cuts off Koman's arm, still tightly clutching the banner, and throws it back into the lake to keep it away from the Taira.
Koman's family members eventually recover her body, as well as the severed arm and the Minamoto clan banner, and learn of her valiant death from Sanemori's recital of the events. With the help of Sanemori, they are able to protect Lady Aoi until her baby is safely born and trick the Taira soldiers sent to kill the baby. Because of his mother's great courage, Koman's little son will become an honored retainer of Lady Aoi's son, the future general Minamoto Yoshinaka."
Quoted from: Utagawa Kuniyoshi: The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kisokaidō by Sarah Thompson, p. 156. (JSV) [See the link to an image of that print above.]
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The curatorial notes at the British Museum describe this scene: "Koman, the widowed daughter of a Lake Biwa farmer, swimming with the white banner of the Genji in her teeth towards the barge of Taira no Munemori, who is accompanied by Saito Betto Sanemori and Hida Saemon."
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There is another copy of this triptych in the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum.
Iseya Ichiemon (伊勢屋市右衛門) (publisher)
warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)
mitate-e (見立て絵) (genre)
landscape prints (fūkeiga 風景画) (genre)