Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)
Inauye Daikurō Masatada (稲上大九郎正忠) from the series Heroes of the Great Peace (Taiheiki eiyūden - 太平記英勇傳)
ca 1847 – 1850
9.75 in x 14.5 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signed: Ichyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Artist's seal: kiri
Publisher: Yamamotoya Heikichi
(Marks 595 - seal 04-007)
Censor seals: Mera and Murata
Inscription: Ryūkatei Tanekazu
British Museum
Waseda University
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Muzeum Sztuki i Techniki Japońskiej Manggha, Krakow
Ashmolean Museum
Museum of Oriental Art, Venice (via Ritsumeikan University) The Ashmolean Museum at Oxford writes:
Inaue Daikurō, (here Inaue Daikurō Masatada) was a vassal of the Saitō family at the time when Katō Kiyomasa (1562-1622) was called Toranosuke. Daikurō fought with Kimura Matazō (here Shimura Masazō) while Kiyomasa was patrolling Ōmi Nagahama; Kiyomasa reconciled them and they later became his followers. Later, Daikurō achieved much distinction in the battle, including against the Chinese in Korea in 1597. There, he was admired for his remarkable achievement in fighting off a host of more than forty thousand enemies, through his successful use of rifles, and of throwing stones and trees.Elsewhere the Ashmolean curatorial staff notes: "This print depicts the warrior Inoue Daikurō Nagayoshi, who led a tiny force of Japanese soldiers to victory over an army of 40,000 Chinese warriors during the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s invasion of Korea in the 1590s. Here he aims an enormous cannon, illustrated by Kuniyoshi to emphasize the warrior’s great strength and courage. The peony flower which lies at Nagayoshi’s feet is a Chinese symbol of affluence; perhaps it indicates the Chinese defeat in this battle."
This print shows 'Inaue Daikurō' at this battle, discharging a huge cannon as if it were a gun, his sashimono (war-flag) adorned with a skull.
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Illustrated:
1) in Ukiyo-e dai musha-e ten - 浮世絵大武者絵展 - (The Samurai World in Ukiyo-e), edited by Yuriko Iwakiri, Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts, 2003, #77, p. 189.
2) in black and white in Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Springfield Museum of Art, 1980, #180.
3) in a full-page color reproduction in Heroes of the grand pacification: Kuniyoshi's Taiheiki eiyūden by Elena Varshavskaya, Hotei Publishing, 2005, p. 153.
The text on the print reads:
[Inauye Daikurō Masatada] was a brave vassal of the Satō house... At the time when [Inaue's] lord still bore the name of Toranosuke... once, while he was inspecting the lands of Nagahama in Ōmi province, he saw two ronin... fighting and stopped them. I'd like to make them my vassals, these two - Shimura Masazō... and Inaue Daikurō, he thought. So since then [Inaue] followed Masakiyo... [Inaue] fought on the battlefields here and there, winning fame in many a province. Above all [he distinguished himself] in the battles on Shikoku and combats in Kyūshū where he defeated formidable enemies, and surprised everyone's eye and ear. Moreover, once in campaign in the foreign country (Korea) he was defending the fort of Tōzan to the north of Uruzan. Military commanders of the Ming Empire, the general-in-chief Rihōshun and the general Kaisei, surrounded [the stronghold] with their vast army of forty thousand men as dense as rice, hemp, bamboo and reed, but [Inaue] made little account of that. He estimated everything and discharged volleys, fired cannons, and also threw down huge trees and stones. Having made sure that thus even such a brave enemy army was thrown into confusion, he suddenly had the castle gates flung open, selected daring warriors and three hundred of them without a backward glance rushed into the midst of countless legions and mowed them down far and wide. How could they stand the attacking force coming from everywhere? - and being cut by [the Japanese] soldiers, they surged back in panic and took to flight. Masatada marched his furious army forward, and the spoils were abundant and easy to get, and then he withdrew the army. On that day wasn't it over a thousand enemies that he killed? The lord on hearing about this kept praising his exploit incessantly.Varshavskaya gives his real name as Inauye Daikurō Nagayoshi (dates unknown). She also notes the two motifs more common in Chinese art: the pomegranate and the peony.
4) in black and white in 'Pictorial formulae of martial attributes in Kuniyoshi's warrior prints' by Elena Varshavskaya in Andon, September 1998, fig. 10, pp. 9 and 11. Varshavskaya wrote on page 9: "No less powerful is the person [than Kido Sakuzaemon Norishige Masatada] holding a gun, Inoue Daikuro Nagayoshi, who is here given the name of Inaue Daikuro Masatada (fig. 10). In the print he is depicted in one of the final battles of the Korean campaign. In 1598 he, together with 300 warriors, was besieged in the stronghold of Toxin by Chinese and Korean armies reportedly numbering over 40 thousand soldiers. At a certain moment Inoue's small forces broke the siege and even took about a thousand warriors prisoner, as we learn from the text in the print."
"The extraordinary size of the gun Inoue is shooting makes one surmise that this is a mere exaggeration used to emphasize the hero's strength. The accuracy with which firearms are depicted in other prints by Kuniyoshi, " however, prompts further investigations in the present case. If we are dealing here with the picture of a real weapon, it cannot be made of solid iron as its weight would then be 45 kilograms, too heavy to shoot from without any support. So we cannot but suppose that handcannons of a material much lighter than iron were used in those times. Indeed, considerably lighter hand-cannons weighing about 16kg, and close in size to the one depicted are known to have existed in Japan and in China. The weight of the cannon was diminished by enclosing a metal tube in a wooden casing. These wooden casings, also serving as insulators, were typical of hand fire-arms. In this case the metal barrel is apparently completely enclosed in wood as the gun seems to consist of a solid material. Such cannons are known to have been used in China, where their wooden cases consisted of two separate halves riveted together by metal rings. These rings first of all had to strengthen the breech and the muzzle and can be distinctly seen in Kuniyoshi's print. Still, it is not clear why there is no indication of the difference between the materials of the cannon itself and the fastening rings, whereas a cloud over the muzzle, showing that the gun has just been shot, is rendered most carefully. In spite of all these uncertainties about the actual parameters of the weapon Inoue Daikuro is using, it plays its role of enhancing the warrior's power most successfully."
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There is another copy of this print in the Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale.
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The text is by Ryūkatei Tanekazu (1807-58).
Yamamotoya Heikichi (山本屋平吉) (publisher)
warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)
Katō Masakiyo (加藤正清) (role)
Taiheiki (太平記) (genre)
Ryūkatei Tanekazu (柳下亭種員) (author)