• Sakata no Kintoki (坂田金時) wrestling with a three-eyed <i>Mikoshi nyūdō</i> [見越入道]
Sakata no Kintoki (坂田金時) wrestling with a three-eyed <i>Mikoshi nyūdō</i> [見越入道]
Sakata no Kintoki (坂田金時) wrestling with a three-eyed <i>Mikoshi nyūdō</i> [見越入道]
Sakata no Kintoki (坂田金時) wrestling with a three-eyed <i>Mikoshi nyūdō</i> [見越入道]

Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 01/01/1797 – 04/14/1861)

Sakata no Kintoki (坂田金時) wrestling with a three-eyed Mikoshi nyūdō [見越入道]

Print


ca 1832
10 in x 15 in (Overall dimensions) color woodblock print
Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Censor's seal: kiwame
The rarity of this print cannot be understated. Despite all of our efforts we have been unable to find another example of this print. However, now it is illustrated in color in Japanese Yōkai and Other Supernatural Beings: Authentic Paintings and Prints of 100 Ghosts, Demons, Monsters and Magicians by Andreas Marks, Tuttle Publishing, 2023, p. 81. This exact print is the one illustrated in this volume.

Marks wrote on page 80: "There are several related demons based on nyūdō, which is a term applied to someone who is about to enter the Buddhist priesthood, or to someone whose head is shaven in the manner of a Buddhist priest but who remains a layperson. One type of nyūdō demon is the ō-nyūdō , which is basically a gigantic nyūdō...The other is a mikoshi-nyūdō, a for of ō-nyūdō that has such an enormously extended neck that it can "look over" (mikoshi) tall things such as folding screens that were used by the affluent as room dividers. Both types of nyūdō demon usually have a bald head and sometimes a third eye on their forehead, and both types appear during the night, and although not generally harmless can attack people."

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Sakata Kintoki wrestling with a three-eyed 'Rokurokubi'. From the B. W. Robinson collection. (See Robinson S1B.5)

The beauty and dynamism of this design is undeniable. When it was added to the Lyon Collection it was believed to be only known example of this print in existence, but since then another somewhat dirty and worn copy has appeared in the marketplace. This only makes sense. Being a woodblock print means that it is one of a run of prints, an edition, but how many there were originally we will never know. What we do know is that it is not only incredibly rare, but it is remarkable and exciting in its design. A true gem straight from Kuniyoshi's imagination.

Kintoki is wearing a 'samurai eboshi' (侍烏帽子) on his head.

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The term nyudō in the title of this print could "...[mean] literally 'the one who has taken the path' and was applied to people who had vowed abidance by the rules of Buddhist monks, but continued to live at home." However, nyūdō, written with the same characters 入道 can also mean 'a bald-headed monster'.

Quoted from: Heroes of the grand pacification: Kuniyoshi's Taiheiki eiyū den by Elena Varshavskaya, end note 4.1, p. 162.

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An unidentified red collector's seal on verso. The publisher is not indicated but is probably Tsuruya Kiemon.

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Mikoshi nyūdō is a better description of this monster than another long-necked phantom known as a rokurokubi.

In a 1639 ehon Tales of the Christians (キリシタン物語) the Japanese believed that foreigners were actually monsters - disguised or otherwise. "During the reign of Retired Emperor Go-Nara, the 108th emperor since the days of Jinmu, sometime during the Kōji era (1555–8), a Southern Barbarian raiding vessel came to our shores. From this ship for the first time emerged an unnameable creature, somewhat similar in shape to a human being, but looking rather more like a long-nosed goblin or the giant demon Mikoshi Nyudo. Upon close interrogation it was discovered that this was a being called Bateren."

From the 1720s on bateren were believed to be evil magicians from the country of Nanbankoku, who conspired with the "...dastardly Nobunaga to take control of the country."

The source for the above quotes is: In Search of the Way: Thought and Religion in Early-modern Japan, 1582-1860 by Richard John Bowring.

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The British Museum curatorial files say: "Mikoshi Nyudo is one of the many ghostly monsters of Japan that are generally known as bakemono. This monster is usually portrayed with a bald head and a jutting tongue. Although there are many variations of this ghost story across the different regions of Japan, the plots are roughly similar. Essentially, when a person is walking alone at night, the form of a monk suddenly appears. The ghost grows taller every time the person looks up at it and gazing at it for too long invariably results in death."
warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)
Yūrei-zu (幽霊図 - ghosts demons monsters and spirits) (genre)
Kintarō (金太郎) (role)