Utagawa Kunisada (歌川国貞) / Toyokuni III (三代豊国) (artist 1786 – 01/12/1865)

Ichimura Uzaemon XIII as Onzōshi Ushiwaka (御曹子牛若) fighting with Nakamura Fukusuke I as Musashibō Benkei ( 武蔵坊弁慶) on Gojō Bridge [五条橋]

Print

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Date:04/1857
Dimensions:19 in x 14 in (Overall dimensions) Medium:Japanese color woodblock print
Inscription:Signed: Toyokuni ga (豊国画)
Publisher: Sagamiya Tōkichi (Marks 435 - seal 24-009)
Date seal: 4/1857
Censor's seal: aratame
Links Waseda University - left panel
Waseda University - right panel
Waseda University - left panel (different information)
Hankyu Culture Foundation - ink study for left panel
Hankyu Culture Foundation - ink study for right panel
Mead Art Museum, Amherst College - the right-hand panel only Description:On the front of the young Yoshitsune's armor is the sasarindō, the clan mon of his brother and eventual rival Yoritomo.

"The personal, rather than clan mon of Minamoto no Yoritomo was the sasarindō, a design in which three flowers of rindō (the Japanese gentian, Gentiana scabra or G. makinoi) sit above three leaves of the shrubby bamboo Sasa. The gentian was characteristic of the damp grassland flora of Southern Japan, while the bamboo was a signature plant of the North. This elegant posy is iconographic code for the shogun: the North is subjugated by the South; the country united under his military authority."

Quoted from: The Lotus Quest: In Search of the Sacred Flower by Mark Griffiths, p. 245.

The bottom of Ushiwaka's armor is particularly interesting. It shows a wooden fence, next to a torii, with tall mountain pines behind them.

His elaborate hairstyle appears in at least seven other prints in the Lyon Collection. According to one online web site this style is referred to as the tombo or dragonfly, but we have been unable to confirm this as of yet. Another site says that this was the style worn by ancient court pages - both boys and girls. We are checking on this too.

In describing Ushiwakamaru's hair in a painting by Kyōsai Timothy Clark referred to it as "...the almost effeminate 'wheel' plaits of an adolescent youth's hairstyle." (JSV)

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Below is a description of this event from The Official Guide-book to Kyoto and the Allied Prefectures from 1895:

It was a bright moonlight night in August when, after long waiting, he [i.e., Benkei] saw coming along the street a (finely dressed young noble who was playing a flute as he sauntered leisurely along. At his side hung a beautiful sword. Benkei, brandishing a long glaive, sprang out and shouted, "Give me that sword." The young noble, afterwards well known at the brave Yoshitsune, replied, ''It Is too precious for me to be willing to part with it. If however you are able to take it, it shall be yours." There commenced a contest between strength on one side and agility on the other. Whenever the giant tried to grasp the stripling or to strike him with the glaive, Yoshitsune would leap like a bird from one side to the other. Jumping upon a wall beside the street, he soon made a sudden flight through the air kicking Benkel's eye in such a way as to blind him. The giant fell to the ground howling for mercy. Yoshitsune, having gained possession of the glaive bent it and threw it back to his assailant telling him to go in peace.

Benkei, though thus defeated, yet longed to get possession of the sword. At last he met Yoshitsune upon the Gojo Bridge. The young noble pursued the same tactics as before. He leaped hither and thither, now before the giant, now behind him, now on the parapet of the bridge, and now flying like a bird before the clumsy giant. At last Yoshitsune with his steel-ribbed fan struck Benkei's hands such a stinging blow as to benumb them, while the giant himself was staggering with fatigue. The youth then leaped upon him threatening him with death unless he would consent to become his victor's retainer. To this demand Benkei assented and henceforth he was Yoshitsune's most faithful servant. He usually carried upon his back seven weapons, -a wooden mallet, a saw, a sickle, an axe. a crowbar, an iron rod, and a glaive.

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There is another copy in the Doshisha University Library.

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The play is as yet unidentified.
Related entities actor prints (yakusha-e - 役者絵) (genre)
warrior prints (musha-e - 武者絵) (genre)
Nakamura Fukusuke I (初代中村福助: 3/1839 to 6/1860) (actor)
Ichimura Uzaemon XIII (十三代目市村羽左衛門: 1/1851 to 1862) (actor)
Sagamiya Tōkichi (相模屋藤吉) (publisher)
Musashibō Benkei (武蔵坊弁慶) (role)
Minamoto no Yoshitsune (源義経) (role)

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