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Lot Essay
The warrior Minamoto no Tametomo (1139-70) (Genji) was defeated in the Hogen rebellion (1156) fought between the factions of the retired Emperor Sutoku and Emperor Go-Shirakawa. As a result he was exiled to Izu, Oshima, but then escaped to Kyushu and formulated a plan to vanquish the Taira clan (Heike). As part of this plan he set sail to Kyoto, but during the journey encountered a storm and was shipwrecked. He was then rescued by the retired Emperor Sutoku's descendants and makes it ashore on the Ryukyu
Islands.
In this work, Kuniyoshi has ingeniously combined three episodes from the same story onto one triptych. On the left sheet is Tametomo adrift in his boat surrounded by descendants of retired Emperor Sutoku who appear as tengu (mythical creatures in the form of half bird, half man), who have come to rescue him. The centre sheet shows Kiheiji, Tametomo's retainer, with Tametomo's son in his arms, on the back of a giant 'crocodile-shark'. At first the creature tried to kill them, but was pacified and rescued them from drowning. On the right sheet, Tametomo's wife, Princess Shiranui, in an unsuccessful attempt to calm the storm has thrown herself into the waves as a sacrifice.1
The drama of the scene is cleverly enhanced by the printer using various techniques including bokashi and the sense of realism is further enhanced by adding splashes of gofun (powdered white shell) by hand after printing, to indicate spray from the tempestuous waves.
1. T. Clark, Kuniyoshi: From the Arthur R. Miller Collection, (Royal Academy of Arts, 2009), cat. 29, p. 84-5.
For another impression in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston go to www.mfa.org accession number 11.26999-7001 and for another in the British Museum, go to: www.britishmuseum.org museum number 1906,1220,0.1339.
Islands.
In this work, Kuniyoshi has ingeniously combined three episodes from the same story onto one triptych. On the left sheet is Tametomo adrift in his boat surrounded by descendants of retired Emperor Sutoku who appear as tengu (mythical creatures in the form of half bird, half man), who have come to rescue him. The centre sheet shows Kiheiji, Tametomo's retainer, with Tametomo's son in his arms, on the back of a giant 'crocodile-shark'. At first the creature tried to kill them, but was pacified and rescued them from drowning. On the right sheet, Tametomo's wife, Princess Shiranui, in an unsuccessful attempt to calm the storm has thrown herself into the waves as a sacrifice.1
The drama of the scene is cleverly enhanced by the printer using various techniques including bokashi and the sense of realism is further enhanced by adding splashes of gofun (powdered white shell) by hand after printing, to indicate spray from the tempestuous waves.
1. T. Clark, Kuniyoshi: From the Arthur R. Miller Collection, (Royal Academy of Arts, 2009), cat. 29, p. 84-5.
For another impression in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston go to www.mfa.org accession number 11.26999-7001 and for another in the British Museum, go to: www.britishmuseum.org museum number 1906,1220,0.1339.