Utagawa Kunisada II (二代歌川国貞) (artist 1823 – 1880)
Nakamura Fukusuke I (中村福助) as Jūjō Rikijirō (十條力二郎) from the series The Book of the Eight Dog Heroes (Hakkenden inu no sōshi no uchi - 八犬傳犬の草紙の内)
12/1852
9.75 in x 14 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese color woodblock print
Signed: Kunisada ga
国貞画
Publisher: Tsutaya Kichizō
(Marks 556 - seal 03-004)
Carver: Yokokawa Takejirō (Hori Take)
Date seal: 1857, 10th month
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Waseda University
Tateyama City Museum
Keio University
Náprstek Museum
Musée d’art et d’histoire, Ville de Genève
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Lyon Collection - another print from this series: Ichikawa Danzō VI as Jūjō Shakuhachirō A summary of the origins of The Eight Dogs Chronicles (Nanso Satomi Hakkenden) by Kyokutei Bakin (1767-1848) can be found in Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology 1600-1900 by Haruo Shirhane, pp. 887-888. Bakin's tale was serialized between 1814-42.
"In 1814 Bakin began writing The Eight Dog Chronicles, a historical novel of the strange and supernatural set in a time of medieval war. By the time he had completed it, in 1842, the work spanned 106 volumes, making it one of the world's longest novels. Because Bakin's eyesight began to fail in he temporarily stopped writing Eight Dogs but finally was able to complete the work with the help of a scribe. The popularity of Bakin's yomihon reached unprecedented heights in the late Tokugawa and early Meiji periods. Even though it was severely criticized by the influential Meiji critic Tsubouchi Shōyō [坪内逍遥: 1859-1935] for its lack of realism and for its didactic framework of 'encouraging good and chastising evil,' the popularity of Eight Dogs continued unabated through the late Meiji period.
One of the outstanding characteristics of The Eight Dog Chronicles, considered the epitome of the yomihon, is its elegant style, which uses classical diction and Chinese compounds as well as classical rhetorical flourishes such as engo (word associations) and kakekotoba (homonyms), often in a melodious 5-7 syllabic rhythm. At the same time, Bakin sought to create a work on the kind of vast scale found in Water Margin, a narrative that would be the Japanese equal of that great Ming novel. Besides sharing the hallmarks of earlier yomihon — the interest in the supernatural and the use of the principles of rewarding good and punishing evil and karmic causality — The Eight Dog Chronicles stresses the need to overcome attachment and seek enlightenment.
Bakin's primary interest, however, was in human psychology and behavior. His favorite Japanese text was the Taiheiki (Record of Great Peace), the mid-fourteenth-century medieval chronicle that describes the war-torn period of the Northern and Southern Courts. He admired the samurai ideals found in such historical and legendary narratives, but he also sympathized with the oppressed and those who had met with misfortune in the past. In The Eight Dog Chronicles, he gives them new life in an imaginary world. The full title of the book is The Chronicles of the Eight Dog Heroes of the Satomi Clan of Nansō (Nansō Satomi hakkenden), which refers to eight little-known fifteenth-century heroes (each with 'dog' in his name) who helped the Satomi clan reestablish itself in Awa Province (Chiba) and later expand north to the area known as Nansō, thus establishing its rule over most of the peninsula east across the bay from what later became Edo. Despite its praise for warrior values, the book may be obliquely criticizing Tokugawa corruption, especially under the shōgun Tokugawa Ienari (r. 1787-1837). The Tokugawa shōgunate regarded the Satomi as enemies and confiscated the clan's lands in 1614.
The Eight Dog Chronicles revolves around conflicting issues of morality, spirituality, fate, duty, sincerity, filial piety, and chastity, enforced in different ways by Confucian, samurai, and Buddhist values (of detachment, enlightenment, and karmic retribution) and complicated by the simultaneous associations of animality (carnal desire) and virtue (fidelity, self-sacrifice) implicit in the various dog figures. While praising warrior-class and Buddhist values, The Eight Dog Chronicles reveals Bakin's obvious fascination with carnality and commoner culture, which gives a compelling quality to a wide variety of characters, even those who are morally weak or evil. The book also raises fascinating issues of gender and human-nonhuman relations. The book presents a number of strong female characters, such as the brave young woman Fusehime, who is the spiritual creator and inspiration of all eight heroes. The Eight Dog Chronicles also contains many suggestions of androgyny, a common late-Edo theme. In the scenes translated here, Fusehime is described as being manlike, and by spreading her seedlike soul beads, she becomes the virtual mother-father of the eight heroes. Yatsufusa, who marries Fusehime, is a male dog possessed by a female soul. Shino, the first dog-hero to appear in the story, grows up disguised as a girl and imitates a female god. Fusehime is faced with the tragic dilemma of attempting both to achieve spiritual purity and preserve her chastity and to accept her destiny of bearing the children of a dog."
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Notice the horseman in water in the background.
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Illustrated in Catalogue of Japanese Art in the Náprstek Museum published by The International Research Center for Japanese Studies: Nichibunken Japanese Studies Series 4, 1994, p. 67.
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The publisher's seal printed in black is barely visible in the deep blue color of the water on the left side of this print just below the date seal and near the end of the sword's hilt. You have to look hard to find it. Even using the zooming tool this seal is difficult to find, but it is there.
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About the Hakkenden inu no sōshi no uchi series
Henk Herwig wrote on page 33 in Andon 58, April, 1998: "The series consists of fifty prints. Each print depicts a half-length portrait of an actor figuring as a character from Bakin's story Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (The biographies of the Eight Dog Heroes of Satomi in Nansō). The first print of the set shows Sawamura Chōjurō V as lord Satomi Yoshizane at the beginning of the Hakkenden story. The last one depicts Ichikawa Danjurō VII as Yoshizane's son and successor, Satomi Yoshinari. The forty-eight prints in between form pairs, showing two actors in related roles."
On page 34 Herwig wrote: " On the prints the name of the role is given but, as a result_ of the Tempō restrictions, the name of the actor is not mentioned. Taking the large number of actor prints published in the 1850s into account there must have been a good market for those prints. It is feasible that the publisher of the series, Tsutaya Kichizo, who also published two prints from Toyokuni's Tōkaidō serles, jumped into the market and asked Kunisada II to design a similar set of prints based on Bakin's popular Hakkenden."
"The portraits are drawn in firm lines against a sober dark background so that the viewer's attention is focused on the emotional representation of the characters. The costumes have been worked out in colourful details. The whole series is an expression of the style and quality of his master, Toyokuni III. The set can certainly stand comparison with Toyokuni III's successful Tōkaidō series (138 prints) published in the same year. The prints from Kunisada's Hakkenden set tum up regularly in sales' catalogues and in auctions, indicating that the series was a success and that it was printed in large quantities."
Tsutaya Kichizō (蔦屋吉蔵) (publisher)
actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
Hakkenden (The Eight Dog Heroes - 八犬伝) (genre)
Nakamura Fukusuke I (初代中村福助: 3/1839 to 6/1860) (actor)
Yokokawa Takejirō (横川彫武) (carver)
Kyokutei Bakin (曲亭馬琴) (author)