Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳) (artist 11/15/1797 – 03/05/1861)

Satō Shirō Tadanobu (佐藤四郎忠信) brandishing a go board [Goban Tadanobu - 碁盤忠信]

Print

---

Date:1832
Dimensions:10 in x 15 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:color woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Ichiyūsai Kuniyoshi ga
一勇斎国芳画
Publisher: Tsuruya Kiemon
(Marks 553 - seal 08-016)
Links British Museum - another Kuniyoshi showing Tadanobu crushing two opponents with a go board
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston - 1858 Kuniyoshi of the same event
Art Institute of Chicago - a very early, atypical Utamaro, signed Toyoaki, of the same scene - possibly a copy of an earlier Shunshō Description:Satō Shirō Tadanobu, against a plain background, brandishing a 'go' board as his last defense. Tadanobu's kimono displays his family 'mon'. This example differs from most other impressions in having a blue, rather than grey 'bokashi' hand at the top edge, with less of the 'go' board visible. Rare, particularly so in this slightly variant state.

Seal of the Wakai Collection, Japan on verso. (later ex B. W. Robinson collection)

****

"Satō Tadanobu (1161-86) was a retainer of Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Surrounded by the enemy Taira in Kyoto he was forced to commit suicide and this episode was later dramatised in the scene "Tadanobu with the Go Board" (Goban Tadanobu)." Typical of this scene Tadanobu is in his night clothes.

Quoted from: The Passionate Art of Kitagawa Utamaro by Asano and Clark, cat. #19.

****

"In the theatrical account, Tadanobu, weary and discouraged, seeks refuge in the house of his former mistress, Kaya, to wait for further news from Yoshitsune. That evening, while Tadanobu is taking a bath, the duplicitous Kaya slips out of the house and reports his presence to the authorities. Upon hearing the commotion of armed men entering the house Tadanobu hastily puts on a kimono and rushes out, picking up a nearby go board to ward off his opponents - the scene depicted here by Kuniyoshi."

Quoted from: The Hundred Poets Compared by Henk Herwig and Joshua Mostow, p. 96. [Note that the print by Kuniyoshi being described above is from a different period. This print in the Lyon Collection dates from the early 1830s while the one mentioned in the quote is from the mid to late 1840s.]
Related entities Tsuruya Kiemon (鶴屋喜右衛門) (publisher)
warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)
Historical - Social - Ephemera (genre)
Satō Tadanobu (佐藤忠信) (role)

---